The Bank in the Heist & The Clue in the Profiler
by asc12
Summary: A routine trip to the bank change's the teams plans as one of their own is trapped inside with hostages, a pshycho and a bank robber. Can their individual skills come together in a team effort to catch the bad guy and get their own out alive? I don't think so... Now encompassing the sequel as well...
1. Chapter 1

_Post season 9, since I just watched the finale the other day and I must say I'd like to blow Ms. Warren up in some sort of explosion. Oh wait, did an explosion already. Man she is annoying and yet other petite intern with a ponytail for Sweets to bang as an indicator that he's wild in bed. Gosh that reminds me of another annoying petite intern with a ponytail and an active sexual storyline, how original. Yeah she's gonna have to get killed off in a story line of mine..._

_I do not own Bones or any other popular or unpopular TV Shows or franchines. However if I do own them one day I will buy each follower of the story a Coke! Woot! Woot!_

_In the words of my own mother, "There is something wrong with you." Why yes there is but it leads to creative writing. Enjoy!_

_Reviews are welcome and appreciated! They motivate me to write more and helps to know people are reading and enjoying. When I don't see them I figure no one's reading and I should stop as I don't have much else to gauge them on. I do appreciate the suggestions and the catches too. I'm not a technical person, I really like to focus on the story so sorry if the lack of detail offends. You're welcome to insert it in your own mind as you read lol._

* * *

The Bank in the Heist

By ASC

"Hey Sweets, where are you at?" Booth asked a little too loud in Sweets ear. He turned the phone volume down.

"Stuck in traffic, why what's up?" Sweets asked staring at the line of cars ahead.

"I need you to question the suspect with me."

"On the Reynolds case with the two bodies found in the RV?" Sweets asked surprised he was being included. "I thought Dr. Brennan would be going with you on that."

"Well she would but she's far more interested in the remains she found in some blah blah blah." Booth said with an irritation in his tone. Sweets repressed the urge to want to talk to him about it.

"Sure, I'm on my way." Sweets said glad to see that traffic was moving. He wondered why he had decided to come this way, seemed like a good reason at the time.

"Okay, hurry Sweets, this guy is like three hours outside DC and I don't want to spend my evening in the car with you there and back okay? I mean, no offense."

"None taken." Sweets said dryly as Booth's tone had just suggested that may have been the worst thing in the world.

Sweets hung up the phone and set it in the seat next to him and saw the reminder of why he had come this way, his papers for the bank, ones that had to be there today. If this place was three hours of town, six there and back, plus time to interview, Sweets figured he wouldn't be back before closing, and as per the call from the bank representative yesterday, these papers had to be in today.

_It'll only take a minute_. Sweets told himself as he pulled up to the bank moments later. This had to be done.

* * *

Sweets walked in the bank. It was a small, old bank that wasn't a chain with the stone columns out front and the marble walls, floors and ceilings. He quickly found a lengthy line and two tellers open. _Of course. _Sweets thought to himself. _They say to just pop in and drop papers off with the teller. Easier said than done._

Sweets got next in line and was immediately greeted with a rolling baby bottle. The young mother about his age struggled to get it while holding a newborn and keep her curious toddler busy as well.

"I got it." Sweets said picking it up and handing it to her.

"Oh thank you!" She said obviously grateful. Sweets had to smile he could so easily make someone's day.

"You've got your hands full." Sweets said starting a conversation.

"Yeah, I've been at home on maternity leave with these two for a week now. I had to get out of the house, just for a moment. I think it was a bad idea."

"It'll get easier. Lines always make people irritable." Sweets said thinking of how he was trying to repress his own urge to run everyone down and go to the front of the line. He could say it was FBI business but he knew no one would believe him, no one ever believed he was anyway. He decided it would probably take more time to explain that he was an agent than just waiting.

"They said something about a computer glitch." The woman explained in regards to the line.

He tried to make the most of it his time to wait as he picked up the baby bottle a second time.

"I'm so sorry." The mom said accepting it again.

"No problem." Sweets said looking down to see the little boy pulling at his pant leg.

"Hey there." Sweets said in a warm voice.

"Oh Charlie, leave the man's pants alone. You probably have chocolate or something on your fingers." She looked back to Sweets again. "I'm sorry, he's just so friendly, he wants to talk to everyone.

"That's okay, it's good thing, it shows…" Sweets realized he was about to list off a bunch of things she probably didn't care about. "What's your name?"

"Abigail." The mom said at the same time the little boy said "Charlie."

"Oh, sorry, you were talking to him." She said embarrassed.

"It looks like I've got time to get to know everyone." Sweets said smiling and nodding to the line. "What's this little one's name?" Sweets said eyeing the baby in her arms.

"Oh, good question. This is baby no name." She said with a roll of her eyes. "My husband and I can't quite decide."

"Well, it will come, don't worry." Sweets said trying to ease her stresses.

"I'm this many!" The little boy said gaining Sweets attention. He looked down to see the boy was holding up three fingers.

"He just learned this the other day." The mom explained.

"Wow!" Sweets said impressed to the little boy. "That's a big number. You're big kid huh?"

"Yeah and I'm big and can go on the big slide!" He announced proudly. The mom heaved a sigh and Sweets could imagine the conversation that had been had about a big slide and being older to ride it.

"Oh, I think he has your phone." Sweets said motioning to the cell phone the little boy was carrying.

"Oh, it's an old one. We took the battery out and let him play with it. It keeps him busy." The mom explained. Sweets considered how daunting the parenthood must be.

"How many are you?" The little boy asked. Sweets had to laugh, Booth and the Jeffersonian team would try and argue he wasn't much older than the little boy.

"I'm…"

"EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" A loud voice called walking in the door. Sweets defense immediately went up as he knew what was happening.

"YOU'VE GUESSED IT. THIS IS A ROBBERY. BANK EMPLOYEES, PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM YOUR TERMINALS." The man instructed as he advanced in the room. "YOU HAVE NO DOUBT NOTICED THAT YOUR TERMINALS ARE DOWN. THE SECURITY SYSTEM WILL NOT WORK WHICH YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED IS PART OF OUR PLAN. NOW, PLEASE MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE ROOM…HEY!" The man shouted to an employee with phone in hand. The man raised his gun and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. The sound of gasps echoed in the tall ceilings of the old establishment. Both of the men were masked.

"Now." The man began again. "Do I have your attention? Do you see how serious I am?"

Sweets eyed the elderly security guard who was equally as terrified as everyone else. A second man pulled the doors shut and stood guard at them. The bank had a large center with offices in the open around them. The dozen or so employees from there moved to the center around the edge which was like a small fence dividing the desks from the lobby area. He turned to pick up the toddler and escort the young mother holding her baby to the perimeter as well.

"What do we do?" She asked, terrified under her breath.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay." Sweets said the line with such calmness and determination that Abigail instantly believed him. Sweets was glad she was for if everyone kept calm they just might actually be okay. Sweets wasn't going to tell her that was a line he perfected over the years, telling himself it was going to be okay in a series of situations where it truly was not going well. He could be a good liar when he was motivated to be.

"Will they kill us?" Abigail asked again, nervousness growing as she pulled her baby close. Suddenly getting out of the house or waiting in a long line seemed like tiny worries.

"No, they are wearing masks which suggests they do not want to be identified. They've no doubt disabled the cameras so the only ones who can see them now are us and they still haven't removed them." Sweets explained. He hoped they hadn't merely forgotten but as hot and itchy as face asks were, if they wanted to take them off by now they would have he reasoned.

"Where is the bank manager?" The man asked and no one answered. The man shouted the answer and it echoed in the marble lined room.

"He…he…" A quivering voice tried to say. The woman was obviously petrified and Sweets had to admire how brave she was for trying. "He….. had to go to the dentist this morning."

The man let out a series of expletives including one not often heard. Sweets closed his eyes a second trying to place the voice, it had a Cajun accent and a unique dialect.

"What are you doing?" Abigail asked in a whisper, her voice full of concern.

"I think I know that voice. I'm a profiler for the FBI, I've heard that on tape before." Sweets said trying to think of the man's name, several ran thru his mind as he tried to mentally locate the case file in his memory bank. He didn't work on the case much, but Sweets had a knack for remembering things.

"Okay, here is what we are going to do." The masked man continued. My associate here is going to collect all of your phones. Please have them ready for him. You can have them back when we leave. Try anything funny, and you can end up like the teller there."

Another few wimps and moans were heard and Sweets noticed the smile on the man's face when that happened, he enjoyed hearing it.

"Phone!" The man shouted and Sweets looked up. He hadn't realized the associate robber was standing over him, he was busy placing the identity of the first man, Ace Acadia. Sweets remembered the man's name just as the man was taking the broken phone out of the toddler's hand that Sweets was holding. He then moved on to take Abigail's phone and moved on, turning each one off as he went along.

The toddler began to cry that his toy was gone but Sweets quickly got the child's attention to quiet him down. The boy seemed to like Sweets and quickly calmed down. Sweets discreetly reached in his pocket and turned the ringer on his phone down. He knew the danger and the possibilities in still keeping it.

"SHUT UP!" Acadia began to yell at a woman who was crying uncontrollably. He shouted it again and it only made her cry more. The criminal began to get more upset Sweets could see as he reached for his phone. With the desired bank manager absent Sweets could see the situation unraveling. He recalled the case on Acadia and knew he was not a terribly well thought out man. He started his plans that way but he often lost his temper but he had never tried something as big as this, just a string of convenience store robberies.

Acadia reached for his gun as his temper was coming loose.

"Wait!" Sweets said standing up quickly, leaving the toddler at his side. Acadia spun around with his gun near his side. Sweets noticed the other man looked up but then back down again, waiting on orders from Acadia.

"What?! What do you want?" Acadia asked quickly now inches from Sweets.

"I can help. If you stay calm, and if you don't hurt anyone else, I think we can all get what we want." Sweets offered. He was calm when he said it, same as he was when he lied to Abigail, and this time, the lie worked again.

"Okay, okay." Acadia said pleased to have an option.

Sweets knew that Acadia knew enough about enough things to be dangerous. He wasn't dumb, but he wasn't the smartest either. He was short fused and short sighted on plans.

"What are you here for?" Sweets asked and Acadia rolled his eyes.

"I know they've got the stacks of gold bars…"Acadia began and Sweets shook his head disapprovingly.

"You won't be able to unload those. They will be traceable and take you forever. You want the cash in the drawers." Sweets said in a voice as though he were conspiring with them. Which essentially he was, he wanted to gain their trust.

"No man, that's not as much as the gold!"

"Look, the gold you're going to have to take to a guy who will have to melt it down, he'll want a piece of the money just to not turn you in or a piece for his role. But the time you take all that out, your money is dwindling to practically not being worth it." Sweets said and Acadia began to consider this possibility.

"What's it to you man?"

"I just want to see everyone get out of here okay. You can take whatever money you want, the bank is insured, they'll recover, dead people can't do that."

Acadia read Sweets face and this time it wasn't a lie, Sweets was being honest.

"Okay, so tell me your plan." The criminal asked Sweets who suppressed a smile that the roles were reversed.

* * *

"Hey Booth what's up?" Angela asked while recreating the image to go on a 548 year old skull.

"I need you to do me a favor. Sweets is late, like twenty minutes late. His phone just rings and goes to voicemail." Booth said turning down his radio. He heard a bit about shots fired and doors locked but it was mostly background noise .

"Well that doesn't sound like him." Angela said.

"No it doesn't. Can you track him?"

"Sure." Angela said feeling suddenly uneasy as she entered in Sweets cell phone number in her software.

"_Repeat! Shots fired, hostages suspected…"_ The voice on the radio continued.

"Do you need to get that Booth?" Angela asked clicking the search button.

"What? No, I checked, they've got a dozen agents headed down there."

"_First National at 5th and Broadway… Agents approaching the scene." _The voice continued.

"So Angela, did you get anything?" Booth said, he was starting to feel less aggravated and more worried now.

"Well," Angela said staring at the pin point on the screen. "I think the radio operator just beat me to it."


	2. Chapter 2

_updated version: Have an oppsie, fixing with this update._

* * *

2.

_Okay so what began as a quick (maybe 5 chapter) story that was a reference in another story, it has now expanded (in my mind) to a two part story. Still working on "Murder in the Family" but I didn't have the copy handy so I started this one. Now I'm pretty intrigued with this one. Better finish that one too. Damn, now I'm all confused. I'll try and do both simultaneously. This could be scary…._

"Come on let's go." Acadia was saying to his ever silent cohort as they carried their bags towards the doors.

Sweets let out a sigh of relief that the ordeal was over and that no additional lives were lost. He would have some explaining to do on why he had just helped orchestrate an armed robbery but the small amount of $20,000 or so dollars they were leaving with was a great deal less than the cost of the lives that would have been lost.

Sweets was stirred from those thoughts as the doors slammed shut and Acadia went back to cussing.

"You set me up!" Acadia said heading back to Sweets while waving a gun. The sirens began to wait outside the door.

"No I didn't." Sweets said raising his hands up indicating he was not threat. He idly wondered if he was glad or not glad that he had left his gun at the office.

"You did you…"

"Anyone in a surrounding building probably heard the shots fired at the teller." Sweets explained in as calm as voice as he could. Acadia realized then that he was only to blame himself. His mood then shifted to a much more aggravated state that Sweets quickly picked up on.

"There's still a way out of this." Sweets assured him, carefully watching each move he made. Sweets surprised even himself with how calm he felt. He wanted to believe he was becoming a more versed psychologist and agent but he downplayed it in his mind that it was just the adrenaline.

Acadia pulled the mask off and Sweets knew what Abigail must be thinking. The plan had changed, and Sweets was apprehensive what the game was now. The other man removed his mask as well and Sweets noted that he had barely packed up to leave. Sweets questioned why the other man seemed so calm, as though this was all going according to a plan.

Acadia though looked panicked and Sweets knew Acadia was capable of losing it and fast as he was now overwhelmed. Sweets had to act fast.

"I can help get you thru this." Sweets said and decided to leave out the part that he worked for the FBI, from what he recalled about Acadia he would see any government involvement as bad. "I'm a therapist, I work with people all the time, getting them with what they want. We can do this." Sweets was sure to talk in a soothing voice and not make any sudden moves.

It seemed to work as Acadia calmed down and sat the duffle of cash on the floor.

"Okay, so what first?" Acadia asked knowing he could somewhat trust this man, a few seconds quicker and they would have been free with the dye free cash.

"Okay, well first you're going to need transportation and a way out of here." Sweets said. "So we need to make a call."

"No, no calls man." Acadia said resisting.

"It's okay, we need to communicate with someone on the outside okay? They've got to make a passageway for us right?" Sweets was using "us" as though they were deep in this together, creating a camaraderie.

"Okay, who?"

"Well, they will be setting up a negotiator." Sweets suggested.

"We can't trust them pigs man!" Acadia added eloquently in his thick accent.

"I know someone I can trust." Sweets said and nodded to a phone sitting on one of the desks.

Acadia looked to his cohort who flipped open a laptop and with a few clicks nodded. Acadia nodded to Sweets to use the now working phone. Sweets dialed the number that came to mind.

"You're not serious are you?" Booth asked having received Angela's location on Sweets phone.

"About as serious as I am about this incoming call." Angela said picking up the incoming line. She left the speaker active so Booth could hear.

Sweets heard the receiver pick up and before Angela could say anything he cleared his throat. It caused Angela pause.

"Hello, this is Dr. Lance Sweets, psychologist. I am here at First National Bank. I'd like to work with someone to help us out."

Angela thought a moment about the calm and disassociated way Sweets was talking. She hit mute.

"Booth what…."

"Sweets is trying to hide that he's an agent. He'd better not get himself killed." Booth said gritting his teeth. "Just go along like you're taking a call."

She unmuted.

"Thank you sir." Angela said trying to figure out what was going on. Hodgins entered the room further flustering her. "Go ahead with your uh, situation."

"Yes, the men here are very serious and they would like some transportation and safe passage out of the bank." Sweets said while Acadia was keeping a close eye on him.

"I understand. Can you be reached at this number as I line up a negotiator?" Angela asked.

"Yes." Sweets said noting that Acadia was getting nervous. "You have five minutes to call us back with an agent." Sweets quickly hung up the phone and noted the pride that Acadia exhibited towards Sweets. Sweets could tell his notion to work an alignment with the man was working.

"Good move." Acadia said. "They will know we are serious."

Sweets looked over at the cohort. As usual he was quiet and standing guard. He noted the military type of presence that the held. He studied his face but couldn't place him from any cases. Acadia hadn't been known to work with anyone before, so why now, and why such a strange sort of man? Sweets felt uneasy about the man and not just because he was toting an arsenal of weapons.

The phone rang, Sweets and Acadia moved towards it. Sweets set his hand over the handset. By the second ring Acadia was nervous.

"What are you waiting for man?"

"We are in control, they have to remember that." Sweets said picking up the receiver after the third ring. There was now a near smile on Acadia's face.

"Dr. Sweets here."

"Dr. Sweets this is Special Agent Seeley Booth with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Sweets showed no emotion while he was jumping for joy inside that it was Booth and that he had gotten the tacit message that Sweets had sent. He had called Angela so she was able to tap into any of the bank's technology that could be running thru the digital phone lines, knowing she would patch him to Booth.

Angela had figured that out, with Hodgins' help after Sweets call and was hacking in as the phone conversation took place. Booth was in the car on the way to the scene having established quick contact with the lead agent on the case. Former lead, as Booth was now the lead and Sweets was currently his undercover partner.

"Is everyone okay?" Booth asked.

"It's important to know that these _men_ are _serious_ Agent Booth." Sweets said. Booth understood that was a veiled 'no' and that there were more than one.

"Understood. What do they want?" Booth asked searching for more veiled clues.

"They want safe passage and transportation."

"I'll see what I can do. I'll need a little time. Can I call back at this number?"

"Yes." Sweets answered as Acadia came closer. "You have twenty minutes agent." Sweets said and quickly hung up the phone.

Acadia nodded in a gesture that suggested that Sweets had done well.

"Everyone just stay calm. Now we wait." Acadia announced to the room. He went to the cohort and Acadia began to talk quietly as the second man nodded.

Sweets turned to sit next to the worried Abigail and family. The baby began to fuss for food and the mother turned to get a bottle from habit.

"Hey!" Acadia called and pointed her gun as she reached in the bag.

"It's okay." Sweets said and Acadia paused. "She's just getting a bottle so the baby will be quiet." Sweets knew a baby's cry would frustrate the on edge criminal.

Slowly Acadia nodded and went back to his partner. Sweets took the toddler on his lap who was growing sleepy, unaware of what was going on around them. Abigail began to feed the baby. Sweets noticed between them they had quite a bit on their laps. He pulled his cell phone very discreetly from his pocket.

With Abigail's help they held it low between them on the floor as Sweets pointed the camera up and snapped some photos of the two criminals as discreetly as possible. The two criminals turned away after a few shots to examine something the second man brought to Acadia's attention. Sweets quickly texted the images to Angela.

"What's that noise?" Hodgins asked looking up from the blueprints they had pulled of the bank.

Angela picked up her phone. "It's Sweets." She said turning to the text messages. "Why do I feel like this is very risky?"

"Because he's in a bank heist." Hodgins responded. "What did he send?"

"Pictures of the bank robbers." She said and immediately began running the recognition software.

"I want a perimeter of fifty feet from that door." Booth shouted when he arrived at the scene. He had just hung up with Sweets and set his phone to remind him when fifteen minutes went by.

"Sir, we understand you have made contact with the bank robbers inside." The chief of police said approaching him.

"Yes, we have an agent inside, Dr. Lance Sweets. The guys inside though don't know he's an agent and we're going to keep it that way because he's not going to die today, understand me?" Booth said feeling his heart race a little faster though he hid it well.

"Yes sir. Do we know what they want?"

"Safe passage out of there."

"Do they really think it's going to happen?"

"They can think whatever they want as long as we get them out the door and get the hostages out safely." Booth said going to the command area that was set up. He quickly dialed a familiar number.

"Angela, are you there?" Booth asked.

"Yeah, Hodgins and I are. Cam's on vacation and Brennan is on her way."

"I'm here." She announced coming in the room and observing.

"We've got the blueprints pulled up. Do you want to get in or do you want them to get out?" Hodgins asked.

"Well SWAT is going to want to go in. On the next call to Sweets I want to get some more info. Keep the blueprints handy." Booth ordered.

"One more thing Booth, we have an ID on the robbers, well one of them." Angela said causing him to stay on the phone though his timer was going off.

"Who is he?"

"Ace Arcadia." Hodgins answered for her. "He's not unfamiliar with robbery or killing people. He's ex-military though he was dishonorably discharged. We have no ID on the other guy. We've run him thru every database and nothing. By the looks of him though he just looks military, there must be some connection there."

"Wait, how did you figure out who they were?" Booth asked.

"Sweets sent images from his cell phone." Angela said.

Booth stopped when he heard that statement. "Is he crazy?"

"Yeah from the angle I can assure you they weren't posing for them." Angela added.

"Thanks. Get ready to monitor the call, I'm calling Sweets back now." Booth said hanging up.

He looked at the phone for a moment collecting his thoughts. He had to remember not to sound too personal with Sweets, they needed to act like they didn't know each other.

The phone rang three times before Sweets picked up.

"Dr. Sweets this is Agent Booth again."

Sweets cleared his throat. "Good to hear from you Agent Booth. Have you arranged for transportation for the men?"

"Yes, we are working on them now." Booth lied. "Do they have any preference to vehicles?"

"I believe fast would be key agent." Sweets said suggesting he'd better hurry.

"If we aren't able to get the vehicles are there any other options for departure?" Booth asked fishing for a clue on the inside situation.

"I'm certain that is the only route agent. Any other route would be dangerous." Sweets said as he had just watched Acadia and the other man begin to wire the entrances with explosives before the call. "Very dangerous to charge another way."

Booth picked up on the suggestion and understood.

"Okay, we will get a vehicle but we are going to need some assurance on their part. Can they release five of the hostages?"

Acadia was listening on another phone and shook his head.

"Just a moment agent." Sweets put his hand over the phone though he knew Booth could still hear him as well as Angela. Sweets turned to Acadia. "It would be best to give them something to show we are cooperating as well." Sweets suggested.

"No." Acadia flat out responded.

"Perhaps the mother and children." Sweets said anxious to get them out of any possible harm's way and anxious for Booth to know they were there.

"No." Acadia responded again.

"I'm sorry Agent, we are not able to meet that request."

"How much longer?!" Acadia asked in his short tempered voice slamming down the phone. He was no longer listening in and Booth could tell.

"Agent Booth, it would be best if we could wrap up with situation soon." Sweets suggested.

"He really thinks he'll get away in a car?" Booth asked quietly.

"It would appear that is the best route." Sweets said watching Acadia closely. He knew Acadia thought that, but he wasn't so sure what the silent partner was up to.

"I'll get a junker here in ten minutes."

The phone call with Booth ended.

"They will be ready in ten minutes." Sweets said and Acadia smiled though his bald and buff cohort remained expressionless.

Sweets sat back on the floor and called Angela's cell and left the phone in his pocket.

"What did you get Angela?" Booth asked calling her after he hung up with Sweets. Another man was busy getting a car ready for the men.

"They're tapped into the line that's for sure." Angela said running diagnostics. "It's a pretty high tech system he's using, which is unlike this Acadia guy."

"It must me the partner, still nothing on him?" Booth asked.

"No, nothing so far." Angela reported. "This guy is like a ghost."

"Okay, let's keep on this, I want this to be over now. It sounds like we're not going in." Booth said recalling his conversation with Sweets.

"Why did Sweets say that, it was weird, 'dangerous to charge another way'?" Hodgins pondered.

"Yeah, that's weird." Angela thought. "What charges besides like an Army?"

"Explosives!" Brennan offered excitedly.

"They've got charges on the doors, explode if anyone comes in." Booth gathered.

"So they're going to walk out the door?" Hodgins asked.

"I'm sure they will be surrounded by hostages." Booth said.

"Booth, I'm getting a call. It's Sweets cell." Angela announced. She answered but didn't hear much but muffled sounds.

"What's he doing?" Angela asked and Brennan rushed forward to hit mute on her phone so the robbers wouldn't hear them.

"He's giving us away to hear what's going on." Brennan said.

Angela plugged her phone into her equipment so she could clean up the sound so they could listen in better.

"Okay, let me know if I need to know anything." Booth said turning his attention away from that call and handing them off to another agent so he could address the other agents on the scene.

"Okay we've got ears inside." Booth explained. "We need to back everything up, give them room on the street. I want snipers everywhere, you get a shot, you go. They will probably be coming out with hostages and possibly try and take them with them. Keep an eye out for an opportunity people, but none of the good guys die today, got me?"


	3. Chapter 3

3.

"Does anyone want to let me in on what the Sam hell is going on?" Caroline asked stepping into Angela's office at the Jeffersonian.

"There is a bank heist." Brennan explained. "Booth is on the scene and Sweets is in the bank."

"Thank you cherie, I knew that or I wouldn't be here." Caroline was short tempered. "But anyone want to tell me why we are getting a getaway car for a couple of criminals?"

"I don't think there are a lot of other options and the fuse on these two is pretty short." Hodgins explained.

"I'm sure Booth knows what he is doing." Brennan offered.

Caroline paused as she looked at the screen, her mouth dropping open at the image of the bank heist duo.

"Is that the men inside?" She asked, her voice taking on a deadpan tone.

"Yeah, the one is Ace Arcadia, the other we don't know." Angela explained.

"I know the other one." Caroline said taking out her phone. "I need to call the office of Homeland Security." She said leaving the room leaving them all to wonder what was going on.

"Why do I have a feeling that something just got a lot more serious?" Hodgins asked.

* * *

"Is he too heavy?" Abigail asked.

"No he's fine." Sweets said shifting the sleeping little boy in his lap. "It's the marble floor that's killing me."

Abigail smiled at the small the thought that the floor was the culprit here, it somehow lifted the mood some.

"Do you think we are going to be okay?" She asked in a low voice.

"Yes. You're going to be fine." Sweets assured her. He knew the more calm she was the better the situation would turn out to be. He also knew he would do whatever he could to ensure that was indeed true.

The phone rang and Sweets got up to answer it as she put Charlie back in Abigail's lap. Charlie's bright blue eyes opened up and he smiled with delight.

"Your pocket's got toys!" The little boy announced.

Sweets quickly turned to look at it first but Acadia and the other man had already seen it. His cell phone was starting to die and lit up with a warning, making the screen visible thru the fabric of the side pocket.

Acadia rushed forward and pulled it out of Sweets pocket to see an active call.

* * *

"Uh oh." Angela said back at the office still listening in. "Call Booth."

* * *

The other men went to the door to check on the arrival of the car while Acadia nearly shook with anger. The fragile _partnership_ that Sweets had built with him was crumbling fast. Sweets knew he wasn't going to buy that he had forgotten to hand it over.

"It's just my wife." Sweets tried knowing Acadia would see the female name 'Angela' on the screen. "I didn't want her to worry."

The man looked at Sweets hand and saw no ring. "You're not married. A guy like you would wear a ring with pride." Acadia spat and Sweets had to almost admire the man's perceptiveness though the accusation stung. Sweets however was shifting to the present.

"You need a lesson." Acadia said tossing the phone aside but it did not end the call. Sweets heart began to pound as to what would happen next.

Acadia went past Sweets towards Charlie. The toddler looked up at the man and smiled with outstretched arms to pick him up. The child was trusting and innocent.

Abigail turned to grab Charlie away but Acadia snatched him up and sat him on the counter and drew his gun. Sweets felt like he was stuck and about to get sick.

* * *

Brennan held her hand over her mouth, to hold back a scream or vomit, she wasn't sure.

"Do I hear what I think I hear?" Angela said in barely more than a whisper.

"What's going on?" Caroline walked back in, seeing their shocked faces.

* * *

"No, don't do this." Sweets pleaded as Acadia pointed the gun at the child. The little boy could sense the change in the situation and became scared.

"This is your fault." Acadia said looking at Sweets. "You look at him, you watch what you've done."

Sweets knew as soon as he looked at the boy Acadia would pull the trigger.

"Don't do this, if you kill him you'll be a child killer, they'll never let you free." Sweets warned.

"I was never going to get out of here, that wasn't the point." Acadia confessed and while that statement piqued Sweets interest he focused on the child.

"You're not hurting him." Sweets warned.

"Look at him!" Acadia shouted again but Sweets raced to think of a way to draw his attention away.

"Argh!" Acadia shouted as Abigail kicked Acadia in the back of the knee causing his weight to crumble under him and the gun forced in an upward position when he fired it.

In that moment Sweets lunged forward and picked up Charlie tossing him to Abigail who caught him having sat the baby back in the car seat beforehand. The people in the bank began to panic and scream.

Acadia recovered standing back up and turned to see Sweets who had picked up the phone from the desk and hit Acadia in the face with it.

"Go!" Sweets shouted unhappy to still see Abigail behind him. The other people in the bank began to flee towards the doors and their screams and shouts echoed in the marble halls.

Sweets felt a prick that suddenly turned burning hot. He looked at his side to see his white shirt turning a deep red. He turned back to see Acadia holding the gun at him. He was about to take a second shot when Sweets fell back against the perimeter railing and into a sitting position. He looked up at Acadia who had total control over the next move. Sweets saw Abigail approach from the corner of his eye but waved her away. She didn't want to, but she had no choice.

Sweets watched as Acadia pulled the gun up to Sweets face. He couldn't shut his eyes or look away, he was too drawn to the moment to turn away.

A shot rang out and slowly Acadia fell to his knees and then to the floor, a bullet penetrating the back of his neck.

Sweets looked around but saw no shooter or broken glass. He saw the threat was down, the other man nowhere to be seen. The bank patrons were rushing the doors pulling until they came open. The screams and panic still filled the air as Abigail came close to Sweets.

"Uh oh mommy, what do we do? The man spilled." Charlie said pointing to Sweets ever growing blood stain.

"Just stand right here, just tell him it's going to be okay." Abigail said grabbing the receiving blanket and holding it tightly against Sweets open wound.

"I'm sorry." Sweets said softly as his color continued to drain from his face. "I'm sorry he had to see all this." His voice was garbled and Sweets began to cough.

"It's going to be okay." Charlie said patting Sweets on the shoulder. Sweets wanted to smile but Abigail was pushing harder to stop the bleeding which made him want to scream out. He didn't want to upset the child so he bit his lip so hard to stay quiet that he could feel his mouth filling with blood.

* * *

"Booth!" Brennan shouted. "Booth are you in there?"

There was no sound on the other end, all the team in Angela's office could hear were screams followed by another shot.

Caroline picked up the phone and dialed someone to get an update.

Soon they heard a child's voice ask what to do and Sweets apologize. Brennan walked closer to Angela as they stood close, both mothers, both finding themselves admiring Sweets for the role he played.

"Booth is on his way in." Caroline announced. They had a lot of confusion as the bank people were running out and the cops running in.

"Wait, I thought the doors were locked." Hodgins said.

"Apparently they were unlocked somehow." Caroline said as they continued to listen to the little boy assure Sweets it was going to be okay.

* * *

"You, where are you going?" Booth asked an EMT walking to the van. The man nodded to the truck and Booth's attention was drawn away when one of the women in the bank nervously approaching Booth.

"The man, on the phone he's been shot." She said shaking all over.

Booth turned away to run inside and the EMT man noticed the panic on Booth's face.

Booth rushed past the bank patrons rushing out while the agents were trying to rush in. It was complete and total panic and Booth wondered how it all went out of hand so quickly.

His thoughts subsided as he saw the now near empty bank except for a little group at the corner of the square. He ran forward only to see a small stream of blood on the gray marble leading up to Sweets.

"Booth…" Sweets tried to say but his voice was nearly gone.

"Save it Sweets." Booth said and felt nerves stand on end. "You, get that EMT in here." Booth shouted to an agent.

"I don't know if they are on the scene yet." The agent said and Booth felt flustered at the remark.

"I'm on it sir." The agent said seeing that was not the response that Booth wanted to hear. He walked away shouting for medical assistance immediately for an agent who was down.

Booth turned back to see Sweets' head sink to the side.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

"No it is not acceptable."

"Were you informed that he was an agent?"

"I'll need to see his charts."

"People, please let us do our jobs."

"Ugh." Sweets moaned as his ears were filled with chatter. He thought he was still at the bank with people screaming to get out. His quickly tried to sit up. "Abigail!" He shouted as he sat up and immediately regretted it.

"Whoa, whoa." Hodgins said as Sweets felt a hand pushing him back to his elevated sitting position. "Let's slow down Sweets."

"Oh he's awake!" Angela shouted and Sweets could hear feet rush towards him.

"Dr. Sweets can you hear us?" Brennan asked in a voice Sweets perceived to be shouting.

"How are you feeling Dr. Sweets?" Cam asked and again it felt like an attack of words.

Sweets could hear another voice heave a heavy sigh. "Let's not overwhelm the patient." The tired voice of an overwhelmed unknown voice said. Sweets peeked an eye open to see a doctor with a beard and a clipboard at the end of the bed trying to squeeze his way in next to Cam, Angela, Hodgins and Brennan.

"Is everyone alright?" Sweets asked and tried to clear his throat so he could speak better.

"Everyone but you." Angela said. "We're still trying to decide if you were brave or stupid."

"I wasn't trying to be brave." Sweets explained. "I just didn't want to see anyone get hurt."

"Well luckily you're going to be just fine." The doctor said though out of sight, it would seem that the others were not going to let him in.

"Yes, Cam and I have extensively gone over your charts." Brennan explained. "You are receiving acceptable medical treatment."

"You lost a good amount of blood, but they were able to stop the bleeding and get some stitches. You were very lucky that the bullet missed the major organs." Cam explained.

The burning sensation in Sweets side did not feel like something associated with "luck" but the fact he was still there it must be. Now that his eyes would open all the way he was able to see the faces looking at him. The doctor gave up and left but he did notice the smiles at him. Smiles that were a hint of concern and a smidge of glad and just a touch of 'what the hell were you thinking but we get it, I suppose.'

"Well, the good news is you'll get to leave tomorrow." Hodgins said as they stood more relaxed now that they saw Sweets was, for the most part, alright.

"Oh good." Sweets said trying again to sit up but again stung by his side. Brennan rolled her eyes and being the closest she helped him. A gesture that nearly made Sweets jump.

"Yes, you will be restricted to very light duty." Cam said her finger waving in the air.

"Light duty, he sits at a desk all day." Angela said sarcastically.

"Well then, after a couple of days you get to go back to work." Cam said amending her statement.

"Well the sooner the better. I like work, keeps me busy." Sweets said feeling content at the moment. He wasn't sure if it was the friendship he was surrounded by or the drugs.

"As long as your work consists of desk work." Brennan said. "For now, at least. Fieldwork only after you are completely healed."

Sweets knew better than to argue with Brennan and honestly he didn't feel like doing much more than that at the moment anyway. Sweets wanted to ask where Booth was but he didn't expect Booth to come and visit him here.

"Hey how did the case end?" Sweets asked rubbing his head, he was trying to remember but it was getting fuzzy after the last call with Booth on the phone.

"Well, Booth and Caroline are trying to piece that together right now actually." Angela explained.

"Yeah, after you got shot, someone shot Acadia but no one knows who. It wasn't a sniper." Hodgins explained. He was dying to spit out a conspiracy theory but he held it back knowing their reaction.

Sweets brow furrowed as he recalled the shot being fired.

"It was a dead on shot." Sweets recalled as the bullet went thru Acadia's neck. "A definite kill shot." Something was bothering him. "You know he said something, just before, it struck me as interesting." Sweets said but he couldn't remember what he said. The others grew interested in what he was thinking. It wasn't like Sweets to pass on something someone said as nothing. Instead they knew his love to pick it apart and analyze it.

"We have the conversation sweetie." Angela said patting his hand. She could tell his trying to remember the conversation was giving him a headache. "We'll go back to the lab and pull the recording okay?"

Sweets nodded and they could see he was getting tired.

"Why don't you rest Dr. Sweets while we go and pull the recording. We'll come back when we have it. In the meantime you rest okay?" Cam suggested also noticing Sweets drained state. She had to remind herself that he had just been shot only six hours ago.

The group soon left the room and all looked at each other. Once the situation with the child began to escalate they began to near panic while listening. They were interested to hear what Sweets was referring to along with what Booth & Caroline had found out.

* * *

"It should be about here, this is about where it all went nuts." Angela said. Hodgins, Brennan and cam stood close ready to listen.

_"This is your fault." _Acadia said on the playback._ "You look at him, you watch what you've done."_

_"Don't do this, if you kill him you'll be a child killer, they'll never let you free." _Sweets voice warned.

"God, poor Sweets, I don't know how he didn't panic." Hodgins said listening again.

"Dr. Sweets is trained to work under pressure." Brennan said but then relented. "However I think anyone would find that situation difficult. He did well." For Brennan to compliment Sweets on much of anything due largely to her disdain for his profession was astonishing.

_"I was never going to get out of here, that wasn't the point."_ Acadia confessed.

"Wait, what was that?" Cam asked and Angela replayed the comment.

"That's surely what Sweets meant." Hodgins said. "Why, would Acadia not plan to get out of there?"

"Because it wasn't part of the plan." Booth said coming into the room with Caroline following suit.

"Ace Acadia was paid to be killed. The guy we are really looking for is this guy." Booth said pointing to the screen.

"Who is he?" Angela asked of the tall, large, bald man with empty, dark eyes.

"Yaz de Gaul." Caroline answered. "He is on the list of the most wanted by Homeland Security. He's a nasty creature. Ex-military. His own country extradited him. When a terrorist country doesn't want you, that's bad."

"So what's he doing here?" Hodgins asked, discomforted by their country's newest visitor. "What's his involvement at the bank?"

"Acadia was a prisoner where Yaz was working." Caroline explained. "Acadia escaped with Yaz's help. Acadia was exiled from everywhere he made his way to Mexico and then into the U.S. He owed Yaz who showed up here six months later. He has been marked since he came into the U.S. but no one's been able to track him down."

"Apparently he met up with Acadia to hold up a bank." Booth explained.

"So their plan was to steal gold or whatever from the bank?" Angela asked sensing the plan was ill fated from the beginning.

"The cash and the gold were a ruse Cherie."

"They left all the cash behind." Booth explained. "While you were at the hospital with Sweets I had the FBI go over the information Angela downloaded while Sweets was on the phone. Yaz was downloading bank information."

"How is Sweets by the way?" Caroline asked. Booth's interest perked up as well. He wanted to go when they did but he had the case to wrap up, killers to catch.

"He's good, she should be able to go home tomorrow." Cam explained.

"So you know this from talking to this Yaz right?" Angela asked.

"Yaz doesn't talk Cherie."

"He had his throat slit when they kicked him out. He survived by his vocal cords were shredded. Presumably it's why he needed a partner getting into the bank." Booth explained.

"And that partner was expendable." Cam asked. "Yaz had to be the one who shot Acadia!"

"It looks that way." Booth explained. "I think that Acadia owed Yaz for getting out of prison."

"But why pay up on that? Why not run?" Hodgins asked.

"From the information we have on Yaz the man is a psychopath. It would have been in Acadia's best interest to die the way he did than at the hands of Yaz." Caroline explained.

"Yikes, that bad." Hodgins said.

"Yeah, that bad." Caroline confirmed.

"So where is he now?" Angela asked.

"He escaped. I didn't realize until after when Caroline showed me his photo, that one." Booth said pointing to the screen. "He was dressed as an EMT at the bank."

"So he used the whole pandemonium thing to escape." Hodgins said.

"Yeah, and that's why the doors were unlocked so people could get out." Caroline explained.  
Booth continued. "We went over the surveillance tapes. Just before everything went down, he unlocked them, changed clothes. Sweets and Acadia got into it, he heads for the door but just in case Acadia talks, he shoots him."

"And saved Sweets life." Angela added.

"Somehow I doubt that was his intention." Caroline added. "Dr. Sweets was just lucky."

"Well I feel really useless in this case, you guys did this all while we were at the hospital?" Brennan asked. It seemed as though her feelings were hurt.

"Sometimes we're able to solve cases at the FBI ourselves." Booth joked with a smile. "But you were all where you needed to be, Sweets needed you guys."

"Well, we should go back and see how he's doing." Cam suggested.

"Yeah, poor guy is probably sitting there all alone." Hodgins added.

* * *

"Dr. Sweets?" A voice asked and Sweets looked up to see Abigail, Charlie and baby no name coming in his room.

"Oh, hi!" Sweets greeted sitting up. He felt underdressed for the occasion.

"I hope we're not bothering you." Abigail said entering the room cautiously.

"No, of course not. I'm just surprised to see you." Sweets said waving at Charlie who handed him some artwork.

"Oh, that's… graphic." Sweets said looking at the illustration of him bleeding on the floor. "You know if he needs any counseling, well I know some people." Sweets knew child psychology wasn't something he really wanted to touch with a ten foot pole, having too many personal experiences. "But he could grow out of it."

"I hope so." Abigail said sitting down some flowers they brought. "We really just wanted to come by and say thank you."

Charlie was climbing up on the bed next to Sweets.

"Oh honey, no…" Abigail said but Charlie was already there and gave Sweets a hug.

"Mommy says to say thanks to the nice many who saved us!" Charlie explained. "That's you!"

Sweets smiled at the sweet child and ignored the pain he was feeling as he was crushing his injured side. Sweets was mostly overcome with the happiness the boy was still alive, all the good guys were still alive.

"Well you're welcome. I'm glad you're all okay." Sweets said.

"And flowers just didn't seem like enough, so I want you to meet, 'baby has a name.'" Abigail said pointing to the sleeping baby in the car seat.

"You named him Lance?!" Sweets asked excitedly.

"Well, no, sorry, I couldn't do Lance." Abigail said blushing. "But meet Edward Sweets Garrity."

Sweets still had to smile. "Thank you."

"Well we have you to thank, or we wouldn't have a baby to name or a little boy to raise."

"It's just my job." Sweets said downplaying it.

"It's more than that." Abigail said hearing voices come down the hall. "Well, we'd better go."

"Thank you for coming." Booth said. Charlie gave him another hug and Sweets helped the toddler down.

Sweets didn't see Booth standing in the door. Booth noticed the grimace Sweets was trying to hide while helping the child down and worried how much pain the psychologist was in. He hadn't' worried since he got such glowing reviews from the others. At that moment he realized Sweets would probably try to hide how he was really feeling.

"Bye!" They all said and Sweets waved as they left and Booth walked in.

"Hey Booth." Sweets said. "Solve the case?"

"Well sort of." Booth said sitting in a nearby chair. "You know what happened to Acadia, but Yaz, he got away."

"Who is Yaz?" Sweets asked.

"Well, I'll tell you all about it later. It's going to be one hell of a profile to work on." Booth said thinking about all he had learned. "When you're up to it."

"Well if this guy's on the loose, we've got to get him." Sweets said sitting up like he was going to leave.

"Whoa, we're still gathering some intel. We know he's up to something yeah, but we're good." Booth seemed to be stalling. "Sweets, you're the best profiler we've got. And I need you on this case, but, you know you're hurt and…."

"I'm fine Booth." Sweets said still biting the inside of his mouth.

"You're sure." Booth asked unconvinced. Sweets knew he couldn't lie, not to Booth.

"Nothing some pain killers can't help out with." Sweets admitted.

"That's what I wanted to hear." Booth said. "Well, not that you needed pain killers, but the truth."

Booth paused a moment. "You scared me there Sweets. Don't scare me like that again."

Sweets nodded.

"That was cute kid by the way, looks like you won him over." Booth observed, making the moment a bit lighter.

"Yeah, I don't know what I would have done if anything happened to him." Sweets said thinking back to the moment when Acadia had the gun on Charlie.

"You protected him like a father, you'd make a good dad Sweets."

"No, no that's not for me." Sweets said looking away. "I wouldn't be a good father."

"Only a good man would save the lives of total strangers. That makes a good man, that makes a good father."

"Maybe." Sweets said. "So this case, tell me about this guy." Sweets said reaching for a pen and paper that were nearby. "Give me everything you've got."

"Aren't you supposed to be resting?"

"I'm out tomorrow anyway. And I'm happier when I'm working."

"Happier?" Booth asked.

"I like to be busy. And if this guy knows we're on him, and pretty soon he'll know how good we are."

"Right. So Yaz de Gaul…." Booth began.

* * *

Okay, so this is sort of the end. This is the end of the bank heist. But this does go into another story all of it's own. Since this one was only about 9000 words I'm considering just continuing the story from here and leaving them attached together. But they feel like two different stories. But they are tied together.

So trying to decide if I should just attach onto this one or start a new one. What is better? Thoughts?


	5. Chapter 5

**The Clue in the Profiler - Following the Bank in the Hesist**

_Leaving these together since they are ultimately so connected but will separate them within the story._

_This one might be a little dark. A little angsty. I have something in mind but we'll see how it turns out. I always sort of wanted to do a dark and angsty one but we'll see how it goes…_

_Oh, and I still don't own Bones by now either._

* * *

1.

"Hey Bones, ready for lunch?" Booth asking climbing the platform.

"Yes, I just have to finish these remains."

"I can do this Dr. Brennan." Dr. Varsiri suggested and Brennan decided he was capable to leave him to the task.

"Who's this guy?" Booth asked pointing to the remains on the exam table.

"This is a soldier in the fourteenth century. He was a highly trained individual who sustained many injuries before he died. I imagine it was quite a battle that he underwent."

"So he's a big tough guy like me." Booth said as he strutted along.

"Yes he was quite large as well as possessing many muscular features…"

"So how did he die?" Booth asked.

"We have not come to that conclusion yet. But in that time frame he could have died from his numerous injuries or something as simple as an infection."

"Man I wish we had a good case to work on." Booth said as Angela and Hodgins approached.

"A case, is there a case?!" Hodgins asked excitedly.

"No, we were just discussing if there were one." Brennan clarified.

"Man this sucks. It's been like what three weeks and we've run out of leads on Yaz de Gaul." Angela said affronted by their bad luck.

"I will admit that I do love solving a good case." Brennan added and they had to smile at her veiled enthusiasm.

"Where are you guys headed?" Angela asked.

"We are headed to the diner for lunch." Brennan told her.

"Hey we're starved, mind if we join you?" Hodgins asked. Booth wanted to say no but Brennan had already accepted the invitation. Booth just hoped Hodgins didn't want to talk about bugs.

* * *

"So what have you guys been doing since the case has run dry?" Angela asked biting on a French fry.

Booth looked at Brennan confused at Angela's question.

"I meant you and Sweets, you know, FBI guys."

"Oh, I don't know, I think Sweets has patients or something he must be busy on." Booth said though questions started to surface, questions Angela was about to echo.

"What, you haven't seen him?" Angela asked, another French fry.

"No, you know he had that profile, it was like 500 pages long on Yaz, like the day after he left the hospital." Booth began.

"Yeah I see the staying at home on bed rest did a lot of good." Hodgins said devouring his own sandwich. "The kid was back at work like the next day."

"Well, Sweets, he really wanted to see us get that guy." Booth said as though defending Sweets early return back to work.

"Well he did the profile for the one case we did get, Anna Elmer." Brennan pointed out.

"Oh yeah, and that was like two weeks ago. Granted it was a dead end and went nowhere, but I guess you saw him then." Angela said satisfied with the answer.

"Well no, Sweets just emailed it to me." Booth said now realizing it seemed strange. _Has it really been three weeks since I saw Sweets last, or worse, two weeks that I even thought about him?_

"You haven't run into Dr. Sweets at the office or anything?" Brennan asked, now a bit surprised herself.

"Well, no we were working the one case, then I stopped by one day but they said he was out for something and then one other time I stopped and he was out with some other agent or something." Booth said.

The conversation halted when his cell phone began to ring.

"Booth." He said and listened. "Yeah okay, we're on our way."

Brennan looked to him excitedly.

"We've got a case." Booth announced and they were all happy to finally be back to a case.

* * *

Booth hung up his cell phone.

"Still nothing?" Brennan asked. Booth hadn't said anything but she knew this was the third time that he had tried to call Sweets, and the third time it went straight to voicemail.

"No, nothing." Booth said and turned his attention back to Brennan. "How did you do with the body?"

"They are loaded up and on the way to the Jeffersonian. I do think we have a link from this case to the previous one. As with the last one, all of the major organs were removed."

"Oh boy." Booth said starting the car. "Anything else?"

"It is a young woman again, and she does appear to have been tortured before she was killed." Brennan said trying to remain clinical.

"I'm going back to the Jeffersonian with you. I want to look at these two cases if there are similarities we make be looking at a serial killer."

"We should try and get this information to Dr. Sweets." Brennan suggested, wishing to return to that topic.

"Yeah, but his cell is going right to voicemail."

"Perhaps you can have Angela track it, or try and send him an email, he has been communicating that way, yes?"

"Yeah, good idea Bones."

* * *

"Oh no, another one?" Cam asked seeing the remains headed her way. "You said this one was similar to Anna Melmer?"

"Yes, the preliminary markers are there." Brennan said.

"Hey, is Angela in her office?" Booth asked.

"Yeah I think so." Cam said as Booth headed that way.

"I've already tried it." Angela said as Booth walked in the office.

"What's that?"

"Tracking Sweets cell." She answered. "I did it as soon as I came back from lunch."

Booth noted a slight tone of concern in her voice.

"The phone must be dead or off so I can't track it." Angela explained.

"Well when was the last time any of us tried to call him?" Booth asked wondering how long it had been off.

"It was on yesterday." Angela said. "I pulled up Sweets phone records."

Booth looked to the screen and noted it was full of various documents and records and realized Angela had been working on her own little case, a Sweets case all afternoon.

"These calls pretty much seem legit. It looks like he called his secretary every few days, he called some other agents, incoming & outgoing." Angela explained.

"I've also pulled his credit card receipts." Angela said and ignored the imploring glance from Booth that suggested it was a bit much. But he was still glad that she did.

"He seems to be doing his regular things, getting gas, take out, paying bills."

"Well can you send him an email and tell him that we've got a new case, we'll get him the details soon?" Booth asked. "Let me know if you hear back."

Angela agreed and seeing Brennan was still in her preliminary stages decided to go back to the bureau.

* * *

Booth sat at his desk but he was antsy. He didn't know why but he didn't feel rested. He figured it was the new case and if there were two similar bodies that showed up that meant there would probably be more.

That thought did not sit well with the agent so he headed off to get some coffee, a Coke, a breather, anything.

Booth walked the halls and unconsiously found himself at Sweets office. Sweets probably had some long explanation as to why he would do that but he pushed the thought aside as he approached Sweets secretary.

"Good afternoon agent Booth." She said sweetly.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Robertson. How are you today?" Booth said, never stopping short to offer pleasantries to the more senior lady.

"Just fine, what can I help you with?" She asked as she could tell something was on the agent's mind.

"I was hoping that the next time Sweets calls in if you can ask him to call me. I've been trying to reach him so I'm hoping you can help me." Booth said and was sure to offer a smile.

"Well I will if I hear from him agent Booth but I haven't heard from him in a few weeks."

When she said it Booth's stomach turned over and dropped.

"I only received an email from him about three weeks ago that he was on special detail and would be out of the office for a time undetermined. Instructions were to email him what I needed to." She said, now a sense of nervousness in her voice.

Booth wanted to ask her why she never told him but she would have assumed he knew.

"Thanks Mrs. Robertson." Booth said leaving the elderly lady with a sense of worry.

Booth was about to call Brennan with his latest news but Angela was calling him.

"Hey Booth, so I got a response back from Sweets."

Booth felt a wave of relief wash over him but the way she said it didn't make it last.

"I asked him where he had been and what he had been up to, to call us, and that we had a case. And what I got back was kind of weird."

That didn't help Booth's stomach any either.

"He said he was surprised that we finally noticed he had been gone. He gave it a smiley face at the end but the comment still felt a little jagged. Which, I mean, it should, we apparently didn't notice. Then he said that he was on special detail and was restricted to email only, that he has no cell phone connection where he is."

"I just stopped and talked to his secretary. He's never called her. She hasn't spoken to him in three weeks." Booth told her.

"Then why are there calls going out on his phone?"

"Could someone have hacked into it?" Booth asked.

"It's possible. Just, something doesn't feel right." Angela said and Booth agreed with that fully.

"I'm going to talk to the director now and find out what kind of special detail Sweets is on."

"Okay, oh one more thing Booth, Sweets got back the profile already." Angela said causing Booth to pause.

"I know Sweets is fast, but, was it just run of the mill stuff?"

"No, it's pretty detailed." Angela said. "We also have an ID on the victim, Jana Anderson."

"Okay, I'll run the name right after I see the director and be back at the Jeffersonian." Booth said and hung up.

* * *

Booth walked into the Jeffersonian and quickly located the team on the platform.

"Hey Booth, what did you find out?" Angela asked, their minds on the conversation with the director.

"He said he knew very little. He said he received information from higher up that Sweets was to go on special detail. He said I shouldn't be asking anymore and he didn't know more."

"So we're going to dig for more right?" Angela asked.

"Of course." Booth answered. "I've already got Caroline on it."

"Well in the meantime our victim here suffered a very brutal death." Brennan began.

"Who is she?" Booth asked.

"Jana Anderson, age 19, college student and waitress. Cute, young and smart." Angela explained bringing up her driver's license. "Her parents reported her missing a week ago."

"So she's been missing for a week." Booth said thinking what must have happened to the girl over the course of a week.

"It is hard to determine some things based on the fact all of her organs were removed." Cam explained.

"Is that why she looks, deflated?" Booth asked, lacking a better word.

"Yes, but you can still see on the arms where she was restrained. As you can see by the deep cuts she was struggling a great deal." Brennan said.

"What, you mean she was alive as he removed these?" Booth said.

"Some of them yes." Cam said. "I would conclude that she had a heart attack as the official cause of death."

"She couldn't stand what was being done to her so she just flat lined?" Hodgins asked.

"This body does have more flesh than the last one." Cam observed.

"Well the last body was left in the sun for so long it was practically baked off." Hodgins reminded them.

"Do we think that the killer wanted this one more intact?" Cam mused.

"That's for Sweets to tell us." Booth said thinking back to their young psychologist. "Angela you said he sent over a profile?"

"Yeah, it's right there, I printed it out." She said pointing to it.

Booth began to flip thru the profile. It read like most of Sweets profiles did, so much so that Booth was convinced that Sweets had in fact written it. His notion that he had been abducted and someone was pretending to be him was done. Booth began to ponder on the idea that Sweets was indeed working some case. He had worked at the bureau for several years now and proven to be one of their best assets. It was plausible that they would engage him in a special case. And the fact he didn't call them, well Sweets always seemed to question their friendship to some degree.

"Booth it's about time to pick up Christine and I'll need to finish with these remains." Brennan said. "Would you mind picking her up, getting her dinner?"

"Of course not." Booth said setting the profile down.

"Yeah, I'd better get Michael Vincent too." Angela said kissing Hodgins goodbye. "See you at home honey."

"What you're not staying?" Hodgins said teasing her.

_Sweets is fine. _Booth said to himself as he left.


	6. Chapter 6

2.

_For a story about Sweets we haven't seen him yet huh? __J__Maybe he'll show up in this chapter. Maybe…_

* * *

"This is so frustrating." Brennan said as she and Booth drove to the site of the next body that had been called in. Though it was reported to not be devoid of much skin it did however match the previous victims the Jeffersonian had been assigned to.

"Well Bones, I know it can be frustrating, but we just have to keep our heads." Booth told her though he was feeling the opposite.

"It's been a week since we picked up the previous remains and we are still no farther than we were before." Brennan said, her voice thick with frustration. They had no leads on these bodies, no leads on Yaz and the whole thing with Sweets just seemed weird.

"We'll get him Bones." Booth assured her.

"After how many more bodies?" Brennan wondered aloud.

"I have an ID." Angela announced. "Cindy Bender."

"I can confirm that as the rest she was restrained as her organs were removed. With more tissue to work with this time I can tell that this was done at a very slow pace. She would have been in great pain." Cam explained.

"If the victims are kidnapped and their bodies turn up a week later, what is going on in that time?" Booth asked though mostly as though he were thinking aloud.

"Well according to Sweets profile he proposed that he toys with them for the first few days. Then he kills them over another day, then their bodies deteriorate until they are found after another few days." Angela explained.

"Have you heard any more from Dr. Sweets?" Brennan asked.

"No, just that he was very busy working and didn't have time for small chat." Booth said. In the last week since he first questioned Sweets absence he hadn't been able to feel settled on the idea that Sweets was on special assignment. Not even when Caroline called back to confirm that he was.

"Well I'm sure we'll get another profile from him soon." Angela said, refreshing her inbox. She had a feeling that Sweets had written these profiles before the bodies even showed up but she knew that was irrational. They were just so thought out and specific. It was creepy to her.

"This is interesting." Cam said removing a small tooth.

"Where was that?" Arastoo asked.

"It in her mouth."

Brennan took the tooth and examined the girl's mouth.

"This tooth does not belong to this victim." She announced.

"I'll check the others." Arastoo explained.

Angela idly sat by, uninterested in the carnage and hit refresh on her laptop again.

"Oh! Here it is!" She said excitedly opening Sweets email.

"Already?" Brennan asked.

"He seems to be getting quicker with each one." Angela observed.

"Perhaps he is getting more familiar with the killer with each case." Arastoo suggested. "It's maybe not so new anymore."

Angela shrugged as she opened the file. "He put in the email that he's been busy at work and he hopes we are all well."

"What's in the profile?" Booth asked anxiously waiting for her to print off a copy.

"More of the same. The killer is psycho, won't stop. Blah blah." Angela said scanning, feeling like there was something more.

Booth was impatient to wait for the paper to print off and instead started to read while standing behind Angela.

"That's weird." Booth said causing Angela to stop scrolling while skim reading.

"What's that?" She asked looking to see what he did.

"A typo. Sweets doesn't have typo's. He misspelled the victim's name there, in the middle." Booth said pointing to one of the numerous paragraphs.

"What kind of typo?" Hodgins asked.

"He has the victim's name as Mindy Elder." Angela told him.

"That's a pretty weird typo." Hodgins suggested.

Booth stood up, his gut telling him this was something. "Yeah, how do you mess up on someone's name?"

"Perhaps if Dr. Sweets is busy he did it by accident." Brennan suggested while continuing her examination.

Arastoo returned to the platform.

"I've checked the other victims x-rays, none of them are missing a tooth." He reported.

"Angela," Booth began. "Check the other profiles, are any of the other names wrong?"

The group, except for Angela, largely ignored Booth and thought he was making a lot over a silly typo. They went back to their examination making remarks and jotting down data.

"Here, the first one, in the 23rd paragraph he refers to the victim as Hanna Elmer when her name was Anna Melmer." Angela said.

"Check the second profile." Booth said leaning in to skim with her. The rest of the group's interest had picked up as well and they advanced closer now.

"There!" Booth said pointing. "Jana Anderson was changed to Lana Penderson".

"Why though, those names are very similar." Brennan questioned. "We hadn't even noticed until now."

"So what were they again?" Hodgins asked turning to the white board nearby. Angela named them off again in order of the first victim to the last as Hodgins wrote them down. "And the last victim, Cindy Bender became Mindy Ender." He said finishing.

The group looked at the names and studied them.

"The first letter is the only thing that changes." Arastoo said pointing to the board.

Hodgins picked up the pen and wrote out the first letter of each name below them. Once he read it he dropped the dry erase marker.

"H-E-L-P-M-E."


	7. Chapter 7

_Okay, here he is... enjoy!_

* * *

3.

Sweets lurched forward with a shudder because a sound had startled him. He relaxed back against the wall upon which he was leaning against when he realized it was just his heavy and labored breathing.

Too awake to drift back asleep again, he pulled his knees close to his chest in an effort to rest his head on them. It was little comfort as the sleep he longed for only came in exhausted spurts, leaving him more tired than before, images that wouldn't leave his mind, a peace that would never come.

_Why don't they come, it's been a month, how many more clues do I have to leave them?! _Sweets mind was filled with his frustration. He knew he had to hide those clues in his profile but shouldn't they have found them by now, weren't they supposed to be the brightest and best, he pondered to himself.

Getting angry at his only friends wasn't going to help but after a month of pure hell Sweets ability to not blame everyone around him was fading. He was tired, hungry, in pain, weak and above all, petrified of what would happen the next time the door were to open. He lived in fear of the door opening with its loud creak. Sometimes it was the small bowl of food and water, other times it was _work_. He hated _work._

Sweets rubbed his head as though rubbing it would force the thoughts away but he knew it was no use. He couldn't see anything in his dark room, devoid of windows but he looked still at his hands. The one thing body part that hadn't been hit or broken, they were too useful, they had to work. He had pondered breaking his own fingers so he didn't have to carry out the work anymore but then he may not have a purpose, a reason to be left alive. He had been hoping if he could only hold on long enough, then he could be found by the brightest and best team there was. He just hoped that time might come soon.

* * *

They read it over and over. They looked at each other with mouths agape. _Help me._ They read it over and over still, it was there, spelled out for them.

"How…" Cam finally formulated but had little else to add to it. None of them could add more. Their flippancy to pass the situation off as routine, Sweets was on a case that was all. Instead Sweets _was the case_. There was so much to wrap their minds around.

"Sweets was assigned to profile a killer?" Hodgins asked. That didn't seem right though and was reflected in the way he said it.

"No, that is no government assignment." Booth said pointing to the mutilated girl on the table.

"So Sweets is working against his will." Cam deduced.

"And someone is watching what he does or he would have sent a much bigger message sooner." Angela guessed.

"Sweets isn't using his soft science to profile these cases." Brennan began. "He's witnessing them!"

"That's got to be horrific." Cam said breathing in. "Sweets is a trained professional but…"

"We have to figure out where he is." Booth said. "We find Sweets, we find the killer, we have all of it. Let's track when Sweets went missing."

Angela went to her computer to immediately began pulling up all of the previous tracking she had done.

"You said that Sweets credit card activity was pretty normal." Hodgins said thinking back.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean it can't be manipulated." Angela said now feeling angry with herself for not doing something sooner, being more skeptical.

"When was the last time anyone actually saw Dr. Sweets, not an email or a text, saw him in person?" Cam asked.

They thought back.

"After he got back to work after the shooting and all? We went for a drink?" Angela suggested.

"No, I remember taking some files by him a day or two after on the bank case. He was really working on that. He kept saying he was onto something but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. I told him…" Booth sighed with regret. "I told him I only wanted results not guesses."

"We need those papers he was working on." Cam said and Booth agreed and went to make a call.

"So you think Sweets was getting too close to the killer?" Brennan asked.

"Okay well let's see what kind of footage we can find." Angela said. "Luckily the bar has surveillance."

"I'll have Caroline subpoena that footage and any from Sweets apartment." Booth said dialing another number now that he had secured from Sweets' secretary anything he was working on before on the case.

"What should we do about Sweets?" Angela asked looking at the email on the screen as she read it again, _been busy at work, hope everyone is well._ She sighed. _Oh Sweets, the question is are you well._ She worriedly thought to herself.

* * *

The door creaked open and Sweets body seized up from fear. There was no bowl or water. _Oh God, _Sweets thought to himself, _not again._

The large man pointed for Sweets to get up and go out of the room. Sweets tried once to deny that request and the pain from that beating still persisted. It was between the second and third victim. He was pretty sure that was when his ribs got broken though he had passed out during the thrashing.

Sweets steadied himself against the wall as he slowly rose. His adrenaline was one of the few things propelling him forward. The sense of fear was his energy source as he neared the exit of his "room" though cell was more like it. The room was locked from the outside. It had no bed though it was where Sweets slept.

Most of the time he spent in the "big room" as Sweets called it to himself. He knew it wasn't original but he was too tired to come up with much more that was original. He was directed to his chair, a wooden chair at a small table with a laptop on it. Sweets glanced to the other table in the room, one nearby but he was glad to see it was empty.

The distance from the cell to the chair was a short one but Sweets could barely make the trip. His stomach knew better than to beg for food it would not receive. Sweets had no idea how much weight he had lost in a month but he was pretty sure it was at least twenty precious pounds. The drawstring pants he was given he found himself pulling tighter and tighter and his tee shirt larger and larger.

The man pointed to the email on the screen.

_Hey Sweets, thanks for the profile. We miss you. I know you are busy but perhaps you can drop us a line and tell us how you are. -Angela_

Sweets nearly teared up, they missed him. But still they didn't know, Sweets felt like they would never know.

The burly man tapped him on the back and pointed to the screen. Though wordless Sweets knew how to communicate with the brute. He tapped reply.

_Hey Ange, thanks for asking, I'm fine. _Sweets knew that was a lie, dying felt like a better description. _Just been busy with work. _Oh God, I hope he doesn't have another body, Sweets thought in his mind. _I miss you guys too. Hope to see you soon._

Sweets wanted to bold the last bit but instead he sat back and waited for the captor to read over it. He thought it over and then nodded. Sweets had concluded long ago that no one else would really "sound" like Sweets in an email and thus he had to handle all correspondence. He had little ability to leave clues in such short sentences.

He sat and waited. He knew better than to get up before he was instructed to. He lost a tooth that way he recalled. At least it was one in the back and not one of his pretty front teeth. Sweets suppressed a smile as he had put it in a good place.

The smile faded as Sweets was swiftly kicked out of the chair. He hit the floor with the realization that without a victim the brute had become bored and needed an outlet. It was either him or another victim. As a kick came to his leg he realized how much he hated when Yaz was bored.

* * *

"Okay so I found this." Angela said, her eyes nearly bleary having gone thru hours of footage. "I've got stuff where Sweets gets out of his car but this is what we want to see."

The group was surrounding her in her office, images on the screen that made their hearts pump a little faster, the long missing image of Sweets to their eyes. Seeing him on screen made them feel a little closer, to actually get to see him. It was however a reminder of his youthfulness and a certain vulnerability they felt towards their youngest member. One they suddenly felt they hadn't kept close enough or paid enough attention to and were now paying the price for.

"So here is Sweets, this the night after Booth had last seen him. I tracked it back to this footage and found this though Booth wasn't sure which day so I went thru hours of footage for each night. Luckily, Sweets apartment is pretty nice and they have cameras at the end of each hall. Brace yourselves."

The image appeared of Sweets approaching his door, papers in his arms and a briefcase as well. He worked to balance them all as he fished his keys out of his pocket. They all waited when a figure literally stepped from the shadows and in movement injected something into Sweets neck.

In seconds the burly man collected the papers and Sweets as was gone.

"Holy crap, I didn't see that guy." Hodgins said.

"I know, he was incredibly stealth." Cam agreed. "Angela, can you run a facial recognition on him?"

"I can but he's practically in the dark the entire time." She said annoyed.

"We should look back at Sweets profiles." Brennan suggested.

"I thought you thought of Sweets' work as guesswork." Hodgins said watching Angela work on refining the footage.

"I'll admit that I don't think highly of Sweets profession, despite the fact that he has been able to help us many times with it, but this is not guesswork." She argued. "From what we can ascertain so far, they are actually eyewitness accounts."

Brennan's clinical tone did little to calm the thoughts of what Sweets must have been witnessing in these heinous crimes.

"But what I mean is that Sweets is a highly intelligent individual. He has most likely left other clues in his work for us to find." Brennan clarified.

This again fostered their interest and with the exception of Angela who continued to work on the footage, they each took a profile and began to skim over them.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Booth asked looking at the lengthy profiles. "I don't recall Sweets profiles being this long."

"It's possible that Sweets made them longer so he could mask more clues within them." Cam suggested when a knock came to the door.

"Sorry to intrude." Mrs. Robertson said, her arms overflowing with papers. Booth & Hodgins rushed to help her. "I brought everything he had recently."

"Oh good, more papers." Cam said with a smile. "For a digital age we are suddenly screwed."

"Okay, this is getting me nowhere." Angela said exhausted.

"Let me work on this image, you take the profiles." Hodgins suggested seeing that Angela was overwhelmed with work. He went to nearby desktop to work on the surveillance footage.

"Good, I'm about to go blind with that. I can work faster with Sweets profiles." She pulled up the three most recent files. "I'm running some software to pull any anomalies in the profiles."

The larger half of the group stood by waiting for something to come along as they didn't have the computer knowledge that Angela did.

"Here's something." She said pulling some pages up. "These letters are in bold in the first profile. They are not together but sprinkled throughout."

"I can hardly see they are in bold." Cam observed as they came up.

"I'm guessing Sweets was hoping whoever is looking over his shoulder didn't notice either." Booth said.

"Okay, I've got an A-Y-Z." Angela said looking at the letters floating above the type on the screen. The letters were repeated in bold several times.

"Yaz!" Booth said excitedly. Then his stomach sunk, _oh crap, the psychopath has Sweets. Oh crap, that psychopath is the one who is sending us mutilated girls._

"Well we know what Yaz has been up to." Cam said trying to look at a positive side.

"Guys this is _bad._" Hodgins pointed out loud what they were all thinking. "And looks like I can confirm that is who grabbed Sweets." He said pulling the image from the desktop back to the big screen. "He steps in the light for just a second as he grabs Sweets. Comparing it to the image from the bank, it's him."

"So the military psycho who stole the account numbers from the bank found out Sweets was onto him and kidnapped him only to make him profile his killings as he's doing them?" Angela asked summing it up.

"Yeah, that's about right." Boot confirmed.

"Not good." Angela added.

"Ange, did you realize you had an incoming email here, from Sweets?" Hodgins said from her computer. He pulled it up to the big screen.

"I emailed him back, I didn't say anything about how we got his help message, I was just trying to feel him out." She explained.

Hodgins read the email out loud. "_Hey Ange, thanks for asking, I'm fine. Just been busy with work. I miss you guys too. Hope to see you soon."_

"I'm not getting any clues here." Cam said rereading it.

"There isn't one." Booth said. "I think he's just being honest. He hopes to see us soon."

"Okay, so how do we find him?" Brennan asked.


	8. Chapter 8

_Finally get to upload this! The storms made a mess of everything, which included apparently internet connection... And yes I was that crazy person outside watching it all. Fascinating stuff! Oooh, could be a story! Sweets and the storm..._

_I just updated some grammer corrections today._

* * *

4.

Sweets woke to a pounding sound. He wondered if it was his head pounding as he gingerly pushed himself up from the floor. He was back in his cell and he was tired. Luckily Yaz grew quickly bored just after he pushed Sweets from his chair and kicked him for a while. The "ping" sound from the computer drew Yaz's attention and he grunted as he read it. Sweets hardly recalled being drug back to the cell, now so much from the beating, but from the weakening physical state he was feeling. He idly wondered what that email was that came in with that "ping."

His thoughts were cut short as the metal door flung open so forcefully it banged into the wall behind him. Sweets tensed as he felt like Yaz was on a war path, hopefully not a path that led to him.

He pulled Sweets on his feet and under his own power he walked from the room, the sounds coming clear, sounds he had heard before, screams. Blood curling screams.

There she was on the table, another girl, restrained, upset, crying, pleading. Yaz didn't like noise so a strip of tape later she was quiet.

Sweets wavered on his feet. He felt sick though his stomach was empty. Yaz pushed Sweets over to the laptop and into the chair. Sweets strength was nearly non-existent to fight back. He figured that was part of Yaz's plan, keep him weak so he couldn't fight back. Sweets wasn't always much of a strong fighter but he was scrappy as all hell. He had learned young about these things. But much like when he was younger, he was overpowered by a larger aggressor. This time it was a giant with a military preciseness few would be able to physically match anyway.

Yaz went back over to the table, he would only begin once Sweets looked up at them both. It tore Sweets apart to look up, he barely had the physical strength to do so. He knew what he was going to see, he had seen it three times before. The remnants, or organs rather, were all in jars behind him on the shelf, all labeled.

Sweets allowed his eyes to blur so he didn't have to see clearly. He remembered the first victim. He woke in his suit on the floor and was semi drugged still when he was pulled from his cell into the room with the screaming girl. He shouted to her that he promised to get her out. He was mistaken. His empty promise echoed in his own ears as he was soon incapacitated by a couple of blows and another injection in his neck. This one paralyzed his body enough to watch helplessly as the girl was murdered, piece by piece.

The second one a week later he was weakened but leagues stronger than now. He had a planned an attack but it immediately failed against the behemoth and Sweets received the severe beating that broke his ribs and left his body riddled with bruises and other fractures. All but his hands. He looked down at them again and began to type a profile. The girl's muffled screams filled his ears as he opened the minimized email from Angela.

"_Yeah Sweets, you'll be seeing us **real **soon._" Sweets wanted to smile at the thought they may have finally found his clues but it was time to profile Yaz as he placed the new trophies in the jars.

* * *

"So I don't get it, why does he have Sweets there to profile him? Isn't that a sure way to catch him?" Angela asked.

"No, he's that sure we're not going to catch him." Booth said thinking aloud. "He likes Sweets observing him, it gives him power."

"Now you're starting to sound like Sweets." Hodgins suggested somewhat sarcastically.

"Well someone is going to need to if we're going to find Sweets _and _the killer." Cam said suggesting they drop the sarcasm and get to work.

"So he gets off on Sweets profile." Angela began. "That's probably one reason he took Sweets, not only because he was getting close but because it was you know, like a way to get back at Sweets, use his work against him."

"Guys, if we do find Sweets, is he going to be okay, with what he's been made to see?" Hodgins asked.

"I don't know, let's just find him first." Booth said.

"Okay, well I dug thru the second and third profile and I found a few things that caught my attention." Angela said bringing some excerpts on the screen.

"In the second profile Sweets says, 'to the observer the murder is little more than a psychopath.'" She read aloud.

"Yeah, I think we know he's insane, Sweets would know we know his identity after the first profile.

"Yes, but this is the first time he mentions 'the observer.'" Angela pointed out.

"Okay, so here on out the observer is Sweets referring to himself." Hodgins clarified and Angela nodded to confirm.

"Okay, in the next paragraph he writes, 'the regular observer of this case wouldn't know where he was or where the victims come from.'" Angela read aloud.

"Sweets has no idea where he's at." Booth said. "Makes sense, it looks like he was drugged from the apartment and probably woke up elsewhere.

Angela continued. "In this type of world, the killer would work in near darkness where little can be seen of his doings."

"He's in a bunker." Brennan suggested.

"Yaz is military, he's gone underground." Booth rationalized. It didn't help to find someone though.

"How is Yaz not getting this?" Hodgins asked.

"Well, think about it, we just now picked up on this and there's been three murders. We're pretty smart and we just figured it out." Angela pointed out.

"From what you've said Booth, this Yaz guy is more bronze than brains isn't he? Is this just going over his head?" Cam suggested.

"Well sort of. He's good when it comes to electronic stuff. The bank heist, dummying up Sweets credit card activity, sending the false report thru the channels that Sweets was away on special assignment. He can do that stuff." Angela pointed out.

"Yes, but this is slightly more along the lines of creative writing." Brennan said and Booth noticed she hardly missed a chance to discredit Sweets line of work.

"Like your writing?" Angela asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's creative writing and you make a living at it."

Brennan stopped in her tracks for a moment. "Yes, but…."

"Okay, let's just stay focused." Booth said seeing this conversation heading in a bad direction. "Yaz probably looks thru what Sweets writes but he's not looking for subtle clues. But that's only going to work for so long, he's going to catch on soon so we've got to work fast."

"Right." Angela said. "Last one here, the casual observer would suggest the killer has no intention of stopping. His work will only continue on past the life of the observer to another."

"I understand that he's saying that Yaz has no endgame, but what does he mean at the end, to another, does he have another profiler in mind, should we alert the FBI?" Cam asked concerned.

"No." Brennan said. "If I were to guess, which I normally don't like to do, but I'd gleam that Sweets is suggesting he is not going to make it."

"I get that watching it is horrific but…" Angela began but was cut off by Hodgins.

"Ange, I know Sweets isn't a big guy, but I think after what happened at the bank that we know he would step in if he's having to watch innocent people get murdered."

"He's been hurting Dr. Sweets as well." Cam said catching on.

Booth gritted his teeth. "Then let's hurry this thing up."

* * *

Sweets continued to type as Yaz cleaned up the blood. The smell of bleach filled the air as he cleaned the floor. Yaz was efficient and specific about certain things and cleanliness was one of them.

Sweets knew the body dump was next but he continued to type, look for ways to put in clues but he had few to add, he knew so little more than before. Yaz tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the door opposite the room.

"I'm not finished yet." Sweets said and went back typing.

Yaz poked him again and pointed again to the room.

"It's harder to type when you've been beaten and starved!" Sweets shouted. In that moment he had become another person, one who was pushed to the edge.

Yaz picked up the thin frame from the chair and drug it across the room. He not so gently tossed Sweets in the room which was shower/bathroom. Yaz pointed again as Sweets grimaced at the pain in his back from being thrown at the shower wall. He knew the routine. Yaz insisted on cleanliness, the blood tended to splatter. He knew he was also to remain clean shaven. Sweets commented in the profile of Yaz's complete attention to cleanliness, not only in himself but in those around him, which consequently included Sweets at the moment.

Yaz left the room as Sweets stood up slowly. There was nowhere to run and though Sweets frame was shrinking he wasn't yet going to fit down the drain hole. He tossed his clothes to the side as the barely warm water began to run. The smell of bleach was dissipating from the room and Sweets knew Yaz was almost done and that he had to hurry but standing on wobbly legs was hard enough as it was. The casual observer did not want to anger the killer by doddling. Sweets realized he was still thinking as a profiler. He thought of how he had tried to disassociate himself with from the situation, to stay sane, to compartmentalize. He thought about how much he missed mere conversation as he shaved. Hearing his own voice a moment ago perked up his ear drums. Sweets had recognized the scar along Yaz's throat were the reason he did not, or could not rather, talk. Only the victim's screams kept him company. That was not welcome company.

He thought of the screams again, the smell of iron that filled the room, the bleach as he looked at the razor in his hand. Sweets thought they had the clues, but he wasn't so sure if he could wait, or if he could live the rest of his life with the screams replaying in his ears. He held the razors' edge to his arm but realized his hope hadn't completely fleeted yet and he let it fall away. He considered re-cutting Yaz's throat with it but Sweets knew in his current physical state, let alone even in top physical shape could he overcome the goliath enough to subdue him and slit his throat.

The door swung open again, pulling him from his thoughts as a plastic bag was tossed in. Sweets dried with the scratchy and cheap towel. He wished the shower would have made him feel refreshed but the overall pain made it impossible. He glanced again at his erratic stitches that were torn and pulled from his gun shot lesion. He was fairly certain the injury was developing an infection. He continued drying and tried to ignore the purple blotches that covered his skin and instead reached for the bag and pulled out the change of clothes, same as before, size-less scrub-like pants and a tee shirt. Never socks or shoes, not that Sweets imagined he would ever be able to get out the door with fifteen locks on it enough to run anyway. Once they were on he noticed a paper in the bottom of the bag. He pulled it out just as the door was about to open and shoved it in his mouth. Yaz took the bag out of Sweets hand and pushed him forward. Sweets headed back to the laptop but Yaz yanked him back towards his cell.

"I need to finish the profile." Sweets insisted trying to keep the paper in one corner of his mouth, undetected. "Unless you want me to forget anything."

Yaz narrowed his eyes. Sweets knew that he was playing to Yaz's nature, to not forget anything Sweets saw, to capture every move of his on record.

Yaz nodded to the laptop and Sweets headed towards it. He began to type slowly, not only because his body ached all over but to annoy Yaz. He knew Yaz wanted to continue his routine. Sweets hoped the paper wasn't fading while in his mouth.

Yaz sighed and picked up the body in the bag he had on the table and pointed to the door then back to Sweets. He understood he would be right back after loaded the body. Sweets nodded and went back to typing. Once the door was shut Sweets spit out the paper and unfolded it. Quickly he scanned it, hoping for something and smiled when he saw the receipt that was in the bag, one with the address of the store it was purchased from.

* * *

Yaz came back in the room to see Sweets tying away, slightly faster than before. Sweets knew he wasn't going to be given a lot of time now without Yaz going ballistic and violent. He dropped his clues throughout the profile and hoped the team picked up on them.

He finished and stood to the side so Yaz could take the seat and read the profile. Sweets noted how Yaz smiled as he read it. It was as though it were a glowing review of work well done. If Sweets wasn't so tired it would have made him feel sick.

Yaz didn't finish the document. Sweets began to sway on his feet and Yaz noticed. He got up and pushed Sweets into his cell and shut the door. Sweets fell to the floor the moment the momentum of the push had stopped. He heard Yaz leave thru the other door as he laid on the floor, a flicker of hope burning inside. He wondered though if that was a different burning in his chest. He started to cough, a cough that got deeper and heavier each time. He sarcastically wondered how he could have gotten sick being in a cold room with no socks, multiple bruises and cracked ribs. The hope started to dwindle as the coughs continued.


	9. Chapter 9

ASC: Sort of having fun being angsty! Is it too much? I don't want to freak anyone out. Well, not to much. ;)

* * *

5.

Booth needed fresh air and stepped outside while the squints were busy squinting. The piles of papers and profiles were making all their heads spin as the night had settled in.

"Four weeks Bones. It's been four weeks." Booth said as Brennan slowly approached. "Four weeks for hell for him and we've been going about our lives, unaware."

Booth's voice, his shoulders, all of him emitted a heavy guilt.

"Well find him Booth." Brennan assured him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Will we, I mean, if we get there, what's left?" Booth thought aloud. "The mind, the body can only take so much."

Brennan wasn't sure what to say but didn't have to respond because Booth's phone rang.

"Booth." He said answering. "We're on our way."

He looked at Brennan who looked back with intense anticipation.

"Another body. Female. Like the rest." He said.

"Let's go." She answered.

* * *

The door flung open as Sweets body jolted at the sound. He closed his eyes tight as the ray of bright light lead a steam right up to his face.

Sweets tried to control his breathing as Yaz approached, purpose unknown. He heard the footsteps come closer and Sweets could hardly control the deep pressure building in his chest. He tried to resist the urge to cough as he lay there. He heard an item on the floor and Yaz turn to leave. Once the door was shut Sweets reached out to find a bottle of water and a bowl of rice. It was cold, but it was food. Emotionally he didn't feel like eating but physically he knew he had to. Without moving he brought the bowl close and began to slowly eat the rice, hardly have the energy to do so. Opening the water bottle took a near colossal strength and Sweets knew this was bad. A coughing spell began, spewing rice before him in the darkness but water did not suppress the growing pressure in his lungs.

_I hope they find this clue, I hope they hurry. I hope._ Sweets thought to himself as the darkness beckoned.

* * *

"They're here!" Hodgins announced excitedly and everyone turned their attention to Booth and Brennan coming in.

The morning light filled in behind them, the start of a new day and new possibilities, they hoped.

"Where was the body found?" Cam asked as the duo approached the platform.

"Salisbury Park." Booth answered. "At the foot of a statue of an angel." He said it deadpan as though he were not amused.

"Interesting." Cam said considering the news. "The first was nearly hidden, the second more obvious and the last two right out in the open."

"He's wanting us to find them." Hodgins suggested.

"Yeah it's a game to him." Angela said sickened at the thought.

"Well it needs to stop soon." Booth said.

"I have some findings on the tooth." Arastoo informed them. "I have a match." His voice was such that he wasn't sure if he had good or bad news. "The tooth is a bicuspid." Arastoo was stalling. "It belongs to Dr. Lance Sweets."

He waited as they all nodded taking that in before he continued. "It had a small amount of blood within it. At first I assumed it was the victim's but when I ran it I had a match to Dr. Sweets."

"How did that come out and why is it in her mouth?" Hodgins pondered.

"Probably a hook to the jaw." Booth suggested and mocked punching Hodgins across the face.

"That would be a very powerful blow to knock the tooth loose." Brennan explained.

"And I would guess that Sweets knew the body would end up somewhere so he must have had a moment without Yaz looking and he placed it in her mouth. Even if Yaz saw it he may have assumed it was supposed to be there." Cam said.

"Well at least it's one in the back, Sweets can still have that great smile." Angela said. "Oh, we have the victim, now I can email Sweets!" She added excitedly.

She moved to the computer screen and sat at the keyboard. "What should I say? I should say something encouraging right?"

"No." Booth said though it pained him to suggest that. "We want it to seem like an everyday thing. I don't want Yaz to catch up and, do anything."

"Right." Angela agreed though she hated to. "I'll make it pretty routine."

The computer started running diagnostics above catching Hodgins attention.

"What's that doing?" He asked.

Angela explained. "I've got it set up so that every time anything comes in or goes out to Sweets it starts to monitor the connection. Just like at the bank Yaz has the lines monitored. He's a smart cookie when it comes to techie stuff but I'm hoping just once he'll slip up and I'll get a hit on where the connection is coming from. I'm trying just about everything to hack in, including some old tricks I learned from Pelant."

"He was their IT guy in the military, he knows what he's going." Booth said but didn't want to hurt Angela's feelings. "But you're much smarter, so maybe." He tried to add a smile upon seeing Angela's scowl. He had crapped on her parade twice this morning.

"Okay, now we wait." Angela said waiting on a response from Sweets.

"Here comes the remains." Brennan said watching the FBI bring the evidence in.

* * *

Sweets hardly jumped this time when the door swung open. He was too tired, weak and the deep ache in his chest burned more intensely that he preferred not to move. Yaz looked at the partially uneaten rice and looked displeased at the "mess."

"Sorry." Sweets said. He hated that he had just apologized. It was just habit. When he was little and beaten he apologized right away, regardless if it was something he had done or not. He was in such a fog that he hadn't consciously thought to do anything else.

Sweets realized Yaz was waiting for him to get up so slowly he got his feet under him and pushed up from the cold cement floor. Sweets picked up the half bowl of rice, it was starting to appeal to him now but Yaz pulled it away. He pointed to the room.

Sweets looked out at it, it was quiet, there was no girl. He walked out and Yaz pointed to the laptop so Sweets, with some rest, was able to approach it on his own. He sat down and saw the email from Angela. He tried not to smile too broadly at the human connection to a friend.

_Hey Sweets, bad news, another body. I'm attaching the details we have so far. We need a profile asap. Thanks. Angela_

Sweets hit reply to the email. He noted it was short but he knew why. He slowly began to type while Yaz waited.

_Angela, Sounds like you guys are keeping much too busy. Hope this profile helps catch the guy soon. Sweets._

Sweets attached the file. Yaz grunted as though amused by Sweets suggestion that he be caught. Yaz motioned for Sweets to send it. Sweets got up, feeling pretty good about his latest clues hidden in the profile. Sweets had eaten the paper receipt yesterday, he figured it was the least likely way for Yaz to find out he had it and Sweets figured it had to offer some sort of substance, right, he wondered to himself as he shuffled back to his cell. He longed to lay down as he head swam. He paused when he heard Yaz pounding at the laptop keys. He turned back around to see him jump up to check connections. Sweets hadn't seen Yaz so panicked before as he yanked the cord out of the back and continued to check cords.

Yaz paused to look up at Sweets who looked back in complete confusion as to what was going on. He hadn't done anything that he knew of and by the looks of it Yaz hadn't caught onto the clues yet.

Yaz jumped up from the seat. Sweets braced himself as much as he could as Yaz barreled towards him, slamming Sweets chest into Yaz's knee. Sweets felt like his chest had just exploded as the air left his lungs. Yaz pushed him in the cell and shut the door. Sweets could hear him leave. After gasping for air that failed to come he tried to calm himself down so he could add enough air to stay breathing. Soon his lungs began to expand and air started to flow in but the coughing resumed and Sweets was pretty sure now that something was seriously wrong with his chest or lungs though so much of his body ached in pain he had no idea anymore what it could be. He stopped worrying for a moment when it occurred to him what may have happened and suddenly the sock to his chest may have been worth it.

* * *

"Oh crap." Angela said standing up as the monitor lights began to ablaze with activity as Booth stepped in her office.

"What's going on?" He asked as he saw the email come on screen from Sweets. "You got a profile?"

"I got more than that. I got a hit on the location." Angela said intensely tapping away at the keys. "I used some stuff Pelant used to use hacking in on us. Fight psychos with psyshos."

"What did you get? We need something, the body drops are a five hundred miles from each other with no rhyme or reason. I've got nothing to pinpoint this guy on." Booth said voicing yet another layer of his frustration.

"I'm checking now." Angela said. "He's good, he had a firewall find the hack right away and he tried shutting it down but I think I got in."

"Angela, if he knows you got in, does he know that we are onto him?" Booth asked cautiously.

"Well, yeah." She said still concentrating.

"And don't you think he might take that out on Sweets?"


	10. Chapter 10

6.

It could have been hours, Sweets wasn't sure. He drifted in and out as he rolled back and forth on the cold and hard floor. He was only sure that his chest ached further and that was causing his head to spin more. To say that he couldn't find a comfortable position was laughable based on his accommodations.

The door swung open with a wrath Sweets hadn't experience before. His mind could only calculate the phrase _uh-oh_. Yaz didn't wait for him to stand up, he only hooked an arm under Sweets and expressly removed him from the room.

Only once he was in his work chair did Sweets head stop swimming from the movement. He put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands in an effort for it to stop swimming.

"Lance?" A voice asked in a surprise tone making Sweets blood run cold. Slowly he looked up from his hands.

"Jessica?" Sweets asked though little sound came out, his voice was too hoarse to formulate loud vocalizations.

"Lance, what's going on?" The Jeffersonian' s newest intern Jessica Warren asked as she laid restrained to the table.

Sweets foggy mind rushed to think of something. He moved to get up from the table but fell to the ground, his legs unable to coordinate the movement. Yaz walked over and picked him up like a rag doll, slamming him back in his chair. Sweets clawed at Yaz like a kitten would claw at a person, it had no effect.

"No, no, not her." He shouted in what came out in little over a whisper. "Don't do this." Sweets usually endearing brown eyes shot to red but bordering on dehydration few tears could be spared for the effort.

Yaz smiled as Sweets pleaded. He paused and Sweets stretched for hope that it was some sort of joke. Yaz leaned in and pushed the laptop closer to Sweets, motioning for him to begin typing.

"No, no, I can't, no…" Sweets said shaking his head despite the pain it caused.

Ms. Warren had not been in rotation and was unaware of the current string of cases they had been working on or the fact that Sweets had even been missing.

"What's going on Lance, what's he doing?" She asked now terrified of the situation.

Yaz smiled his grizzly smile and made a motion for Sweets to explain. Sweets shook his head again, his mental state collapsing.

"I'm begging you, don't."

"Lance? Lance!?" Jessica shouted again, echoing in Sweets ear as he could sense her fear mounting.

Yaz approached Sweets and in one quick motion slammed Sweets head in the desktop. Sweets grasped his head as it spun. He could barely hold onto the desk from merely falling out of the chair.

"What?! No! LANCE!" The shouting turned to screams as Sweets vision swam around the room and the screams echoed in his ears.

* * *

"Let's see what we have." Booth suggested as they opened the profile.

Angela was nervous now as to what danger Sweets might be in. She pushed those thoughts aside as she rushed to work on the profile Sweets had sent in.

"Okay, I'm searching for anomalies." She explained as a scan ran thru the multi-page document. Dozens of items came on the screen but some purely didn't make sense.

"What are some of these?" Booth asked at the non-sensical patterns.

"I don't let's see how many there are. I see there are several strewn in italics, the first four are numbers strewn thru the paragraphs." Angela said.

"Four, seven, two, seven." She read aloud.

"What can that be?" Booth wondered thinking of all things with four digits.

"His email said he hoped to see us soon, do you think it's a hint to his location?" Angela pondered.

"An address!" Booth shouted. "But numbers could be anywhere, is there a street name?"

"Let's see, in italics I also have Adams and Ballister." She said. "I'm running a search on those."

Moments later a list of nearly a dozen came on the screen. "Crap there's like a dozen 4727 Adams streets and a couple of Ballisters in all of the northeast."

Booth was thinking, the name came to mind, an association of some kind. "No! Ballister isn't a city, it's case we worked in Georgetown." Booth caught on. "Sweets knew if he typed Georgetown then Yaz would see that. He references Ballister and Adams as previous cases, but that's where he's at, 4727 Adams in Georgetown!"

"How does he know where he is. Wait, I'm running that address." Angela said clicking away. "Booth that's for a Salvation Army store. I doubt Yaz is in the basement."

They both paused in order to think this over.

"Then Sweets must know somehow that he's _near _that store." Booth suggested.

"Right, I'm still running code to break down the location the signal was coming from. If I calibrate it with this address being nearby…"

"How long will this take?" Booth asked, now antsy and highly irritated.

"However long it takes." Angela offered. "There's a lot of decoding going on."

* * *

Sweets head raised back up at the sound of Yaz tapping on the keyboard. Sweets nodded dutifully. There was nothing he could do now, it was done, it was quiet.

Things hadn't gone particularly well after the first date with he and Jessica Warren but they had remained friendly. Going on a date and to bed with a carbon copy of Daisy probably wasn't Sweets smartest move and after an electric night of sex it was pretty obvious to both of them where it wasn't headed. Sweets had told himself he should find a new sort of girl, maybe one that wasn't quite an annoying, ponytailed intern at the Jeffersonian.

Now that seemed to fade as he listened to her blood drip onto the floor. The sound seemed to pound with each drop. Yaz watched with glee at Sweets and his pain and because of that Sweets chose to drop a shade on his emotions. He wished to give Yaz no more enjoyment. He compartmentalized, shut down, worked.

The thought occurred to him that if he had taken Jessica Warren, and the others had been strangers that Yaz was onto him and the Jeffersonian. He recalled the previous day when Yaz was pulling connections, Angela must have tapped in when the last email went out. Sweets knew they were in dangerous territory with a particularly treacherous monster. Sweets concentrated as much as he could on the profile and less on the work being done by him. This was something new for Yaz, Sweets tried hard not to watch what he was doing and instead only type.

* * *

"What's this?" Cam asked being handed paperwork.

"Evidence to be delivered to you ma'am." The FBI agent said to her.

"Is this from Agent Seeley Booth?" Cam asked.

"I don't know ma'am, I'm just following paperwork." He said growing agitated and began to unload whether Cam was going to sign for it or not.

"What are these packages?" Brennan asked approaching.

"I don't know, but I'm not so sure I like it." She explained as she signed the clipboard.

"They're heavy." Hodgins explained as he moved it to the platform.

"Should we scan these?" Brennan asked.

"There are instructions here that this is FBI evidence instructed to be delivered here to Dr. Brennan." Cam said reading along. "Booth must have done something and forgotten to tell us."

"Oh God." Hodgins said backing away from the box and the smell.

"What is it?" Cam asked, her voice thick with concern as she approached. She peered in the box and saw a pile of flesh.

"What the?" Cam said looking in the box lined with plastic to keep it from escaping.

"This box is very strange, a square." Brennan said moving it to the platform with help of Hodgins.

"Ah, and here is what it belongs on." Brennan said peering into the box with the skeletal frame, again with a lining in the box. She and Arastoo placed the two piece skeleton on the table.

"Not a big enough box for it to be in one piece?" Hodgins questioned.

"Perhaps that size box would have raised too much suspicion." Brennan explained. "Due to the lack of organs being delivered I suppose we can assume that this is the work of our killer?"

"Oh God." Angela said approaching. "He's delivering bodies to us now?"

"It looks that way." Cam said examining the tissue.

"This is my fault." Angela said. "He must have figured I was onto him, that's why he delivered it here." She surmised.

"We do not know anything for sure." Brennan said balancing between fact and trying to bring her friend reassurance. "We need to contact Booth, let him know these arrived."

"But who are they?" Angela asked.

"We'll find out soon, I'm checking some of the tissue samples." Cam said. "How is the hacking going?"

"Slowly." Angela said with a sigh. "It's got a lot of code to go thru. I hope it was worth it."

"This guy needs to be stopped." Hodgins said. "And we'll find Sweets…"

Hodgins voice was cut off by Cam. "Oh my God!" She said dropping the tool she had in her hand. They turned to her with a 'what is it?' stare.

She took a step back to reveal the match on the screen to Jessica Warren. Even the stoic Brennan felt sick. Hodgins grabbed Angela before she hit the ground from passing out. Cam's hand was shaking so bad that Arastoo ignored their usual policy and wrapped his arms around her. While she wasn't their closest friend it was a shock to have one of their interns stripped of their skin and delivered to them.

"I'll call Booth." Brennan said and stepped off the platform and once out of sight, promptly threw up.

* * *

For weeks now Sweets had hoped for a little light in his cell, even company. This wasn't what he had in mind.

Too weak after his profile was done, Yaz drug him back to his room and dropped him on the floor. Sweets lay still, quiet, not moving and barely breathing, waiting for Yaz to leave for his usual delivery. He was surprised when after packing tape sounds ceased that the door opened again. He soon found himself in a circle or rope lights and after that jars placed in front of them. Jessica Warren's organs, in jars, like the others but these were being placed around Sweets. Everywhere he looked they were there, including her eyes.

Once the circle was complete Yaz stood back to watch. Sweets pulled himself inward, his face buried under his arms so he didn't have to see, preferring the darkness he had made on his own. Yaz was disappointed there was no instant breakdown but he lacked patience so he left.

Once Sweets could tell he was gone he lost it and the deep sadness he had been holding in left, with only himself to hear.

* * *

"Have we got a profile yet?" Booth asked grimly as he stood back looking at the remains being covered.

"No, nothing." Angela said.

"Did you ask?" Booth asked not hiding his irritation well.

Angela looked up at him with red rimmed eyes and Booth sighed.

"I'm sorry Angela, I just didn't see this coming, and I want Sweets back and…"

"I did, I said I didn't have an identity yet but described, the, way we got it." She had a hard time saying it.

"That's good, we'll pretend we don't know." Booth said formulating a plan.

"How can you be so cold?" Angela demanded to Booth. Everyone could tell they were about to get in it.

"Please." Brennan said in a soft voice, nearly out of character for her. "We need to focus on the case. Right now. We have to get Sweets back. I don't want him in the next shipment." Brennan raised her hand to her mouth as the last part was a near whisper. Booth walked over and wrapped his arms around her. He had no wise words to share he only ran a comforting hand over her back.

"It's here." Angela said getting up to open the file. "It's only about five pages."

"I imagine that's five more pages than I could write when a girlfriend was murdered before my own eyes." Hodgins said moving to the stages of anger.

"Were they dating?" Cam asked.

"It was just one date." Angela explained. "Sweets barely talked about it, he just said they were friends. Sometimes I wonder why he can't get or stay in reasonable relationships."

It wasn't lost on any of them as they stood there they were all in strong and long term relationships while their young friend faltered in that category and wondered why he was unable to attain something more than wild sexual encounters. If they were the shrinks they would have an opinion for Sweets. But that brought to mind their Sweets with normal problems, not current Sweets who was by all understandable means going thru not so normal problems in the duration of his entrapment.

"Was there an email with it?" Booth asked hoping to gleam into Sweets mind.

"He only says, _here is the profile._" Angela read aloud. They knew that wasn't good.

"Is there anything?" Cam asked. The body had taken a back seat while they considered turning it over to the FBI for being too close to it. Having no direct relationship to her they could continue, if they wished but preliminary exams suggested little difference or clues than before. Yaz was meticulous in his lack of clues.

"Well I'm running a scan and there are dozens of misspelled words but they don't seem to mean anything. It's even slightly hard to understand." Angela said reading.

"I think we can all guess why." Cam suggested.

"Excuse me for a moment." Brennan said swiftly walking away. Booth turned to go after her.

"Just give her a minute Seeley." Cam warmed. "Dr. Brennan compartmentalizes, she's struggling with that right now. Just give her a minute to breathe."

"What is it Angela?" Hodgins asked as a tear slid down her cheek.

She cleared her throat. "_The observer suggests the killer is too smart for capture. All victims in his path will perish._" A second tear followed the first. "Sweets is giving up."


	11. Chapter 11

7.

"Ange," Hodgins said looking up. "What's the red blinking light mean?"

Angela looked up and brushed the tear aside.

"Holy crap." She said tapping away.

"Did you find the location?" Booth asked.

"I'm checking, hold on a minute."

"I'll get Bones." Booth announced.

"Is he nearby?" Cam asked only to be shushed by Angela who was busy typing away. Their hope began to mount at the thought they may have found Sweets. They were convinced they could all help him. They were the brightest and best, they could do anything, if they could catch this psycho then they could do anything and that included helping their dearest often overlooked member of the team. But it was under these circumstances that they knew how much they needed him, how much they cared.

"I don't care!" Booth shouted coming back in the room moments later. He held a phone in one hand and shoe in the other. "Get people **all **over this place **now**."

"What's going on?" Cam asked noting Booth's sudden unhinged nature.

"Bones' missing." Booth said. "I found this shoe and scuff marks by the door."

"What?!" Came the collective remarks.

"Maybe…" Cam began but she knew Brennan went for fresh air, not a hike.

"Oh crap." Cam added. "You know who took her don't you?"

The realization fell on them. If he went from random people to Jessica, the next step was anyone close to the team.

"Angela, get me that address **_now._**"

* * *

Sweet surrender was not what Sweets would call it as he begged to die laying on the floor. He chastised himself for not taking the opportunity yesterday when he had the razor and a false sense of hope, as he categorized it.

The door flung open and this time Sweets had no reaction. Yaz was dragging something but he paused to come closer to Sweets to check his pulse. He was so still Yaz wasn't sure he was breathing. To Yaz's delight Sweets was, just barely as it was such a labored breathing but still Yaz pulled him by the arm, knocking over an organ jar as Sweets went past it.

Brennan was still trying to move her arms though the drugs she had been injected with left her mind active but her body unresponsive. She had taken extensive notes of their near location while en route, and prepared herself mentally for where they were going. She looked for opportunities to escape, if only her body would cooperate.

Now on the cold metal table she had first examined the room and the rows of jars with human organs inside, all labeled. She noted that no jars bore the name of Jessica Warren and she wondered where they were. She also strained to look around for Sweets, she knew he was here but where? Her question was soon answered when Yaz entered with him.

"Sweets?" A voice asked timidly but Sweets pretended not to hear it. _Not again, not Daisy, just death, his own, _that was all he wanted. He was done.

Yaz tossed Sweets to his chair which rocked back against the wall and then forward again leaving Sweets to collapse onto the surface and remain there.

It wasn't until the projectile rested in the rest that Brennan was able to look at him though he had not seen her yet. She hadn't seen Sweets in a month and the last time she saw him he was recovering well from his gunshot wound when they had that celebratory drink. The figure that passed by her was painfully thin and frail and breathed roughly. She worried for Sweets, and herself as she looked to the jars again.

Yaz nudged Sweets but he failed to move. He shoved him harder and Brennan's worry grew. She had not resigned herself to a fate of death and found herself increasingly more concerned about Sweets. Yaz yanked Sweets head up by his hair.

"Stop that!" Brennan yelled forcing Sweets to open his bloodshot eyes. Though paralyzed from the drugs her stomach still lurched looking at the bruised and frail psychologist who was unable to even hold up his own head.

Sweets eyes came into focus and it wasn't Daisy, it was worse, it was one of the three women living he admired the most.

Yaz let go of Sweets head which after a quick dip down he held on his own accord, frozen in place.

"You need to stop this, right now!" Brennan shouted to Yaz but Sweets felt like it was up to him, though his body was about as motionless as Brennan's.

Yaz chose not to restrain Brennan as he had the others, instead allowing the drug to do so. He picked up a saw looking instrument with a smile. Sweets began to cough, a deep cough that rattle his core making his hands shake. He looked up as Yaz touched down against Brenan's' side.

* * *

"Now! Get them down here now." Booth shouted into the phone as he flew down the city streets dodging cars and growing impatient as the other agents tried to organize.

"Five minutes is **_not _**acceptable." Booth instructed them and hung up. He was two minutes away, he was not going to wait three more when two people he cared about so much were hinged on him arriving in time.

* * *

**Crash.** Yaz stopped to look up and see Sweets sitting at an empty desk. He looked over the exam table to see the laptop on the ground. Irritated he went around the table with the intention to force it back in front of Sweets. Before he got that far, Sweets dug deep for enough strength to turn the tiny table over. Yaz's eyes narrowed at Sweets as he approached pulling Sweets frail figure from the chair and tossing him against the near wall. His eyes narrowed in as he decided what to do. Kill the man who was testing him, but have no one watch him work. He had another idea. He would let him watch, he figured Sweets was too weak to move. In fact, he would let them _all _watch their friends die.

Yaz turned the table back upright and sat the laptop on it. He turned on the webcam and connected it to the email address the profiles went to.

* * *

"What?!" Booth shouted when he answered.

"Booth, you're going to want to hurry." Angela said as evenly as she could. "We've got a live feed. It's bad."

* * *

Yaz smiled at his idea but spun around when he heard glass break. To his surprise the frail twig had pushed himself up and was leaning against the wall for support, pushing the jars with the organs to the floor and allowing them to crash. The third one crashed when Yaz raced forward. Sweets braced himself for what was coming next. He was buying time for Dr. Brennan, that was all.

Sweets bounced as he landed across the room. Yaz looked between Brennan and Sweets, his eyes ablaze with madness, _who first_ he wondered. He had another idea. He drug Sweets back towards Brennan and threw him against the table. He grasped the side to keep from falling back to the ground as Yaz turned to get something. He looked over as he felt a hand on his, Dr. Brennan grabbed his hand and he looked to her. She swallowed when she saw his sunken eyes and hallowed cheeks, blood tricking from his head, life draining from his eyes.

She let go as Yaz turned back around putting a knife in Sweets hand and Yaz's own hand over his as he forced Sweets hand closer to Brennan's side again. Sweets tried to let go of the knife as it drew a small line of blood but Sweets was too weak to resist as Yaz shoved his hand forward.

Sweets got an idea and steadied himself, now with his weight on his lefts and with his free hand that was holding himself up he swiftly moved and poked Yaz in the eye. The motion caused an automatic physical reaction on Yaz's part to grab his eyes.

Sweets stumbled back against the counter and Brennan grabbed the knife. She hand limited mobility in her arms but enough to grip it. She looked at Sweets who dug even deeper and turned to pull her off the table but her weight was too great for his drained frame and they both toppled to the floor. Yaz turned back and picked up Sweets tossing him back against the wall and landing on the pile of broken glass from the organ jars on the ground.

Brennan found strength with the growing adrenaline which fought against the depressant in her system. Up on two legs she darted in the opposite direction towards the door when Yaz grabbed her ankle. She turned and swung the knife at him as he looked up, cutting him from his cheek across his eye. He reared back in a soundless pain as Brennan again rushed the door.

She had no intention of leaving Sweets behind, she knew Yaz would follow her and she was sure she heard Booth on the other side of the door. She got to the door and pulled and turned the many locks. She heard Yaz scrambling behind her with two locks to go. She tried to decide to turn and try and stab him or undo the last two on the heavy metal door. Booth was using his shoulder trying to push it in but she knew based on these locks that was no use and bullets would only ricochet on his side.

She turned the last two as Booth burst in the door, throwing Brennan behind the door as she dropped the knife as she fell back and Booth barreled into Yaz and they both fell to the floor. Booth was up first and jumped the man who was enormous as Booth soon found out. He tossed Booth backwards into a room with sparse lighting and a strange assortment of jars. Booth looked away from them and back up to Yaz who was about to pull the door shut on him when Brennan stabbed Yaz in the back of the leg with the knife. She was having difficulty standing and it was the best shot she could get. Yaz turned and threw her back towards the table and near Sweets.

Booth was furious seeing Brennan tossed and rushed forward like a football player ramming an opponent and sent Yaz back into the wall.

Brennan turned to see a steam of watered blood heading her way. She looked where it was coming from when she saw Sweets laying on the pile of shards of glass. She looked back at Booth as he tousled with Yaz. She looked for Booth's gun, anxious to kill Yaz and help Sweets. The gun had been lost in the fight. As she searched Booth found himself on the bottom of the pile and the giant on top of him. Booth spied the knife in the back of Yaz's leg.

"Bones!" He shouted hoping she could distract Yaz for a moment.

"I'm looking for your gun Booth!" She shouted.

"Help me." Booth said instead and Brennan thought back to Sweets original message, she would not be too late this time. She turned to Booth and saw the gun. She picked it up and turned to fire it at Yaz's head when his hand struck it and it flew from her hand and he shoved her back again. Booth took the moment to pull the knife from Yaz's leg and as he turned Booth dug it in his neck.

Booth shoved him off as he pitched and writhed on the floor. He could hear agents approaching. _Great timing guys_ he said to himself not that they were done. He turned to see Brennan hunched over a small figure on the floor and he wondered where Sweets was.

Brennan leaned over Sweets who faced away from them. She was about the gently roll him over, fearful of what glass had punctured him when she saw him with a piece of glass in his right hand and holding it up to his left wrist. He was trying to push it forward but he lacked the strength to make the cut though he seemed to have the determination to do so.

Brennan's eyes began to fill with tears at the sight. She put her left hand on Sweets' shoulder and with her right took the glass from him. He dropped his hand to the ground defeatedly and Brennan tried to roll him back towards her as Booth approached.

"Hey where's Sweets?" He asked and stopped when he saw that was who Brennan had with her.

"Help me get him on the table Booth." Brennan said in strained chords. "Be careful of the glass." She said pointing to his side opposite her.

Booth ushered Brennan away so he could pick up Sweets himself as she was still wobbly on her own feet some, but leagues better than the condition Sweets was in that he did not worry as much for her at that moment. She was safe, Sweets was not. It also bothered Booth that while he braced himself to pick up Sweets, who was as tall as he, it took barely any effort.

"Face him towards you." Brennan instructed as she was on the opposite side of the stainless steel table. The glass was pointing up towards Brennan. Booth looked down at Sweets and had to take in a deep breath. He was appalled at the frail and bruised sight, he hardly recognized Sweets he was so pale and discolored.

He backed up a second to compose himself as he pulled out his phone.

"Where is the medic, I need immediate assistance now. Agent down, I repeat, Agent down."

A stir of agents came in the door but no medic.

"Booth I need your help." Brennan instructed and Booth approached the table. It wasn't lost on any of them this was the same table Yaz used to dismantle his victims. Booth touched it and it was cold. He looked back to Sweets who was laying on it. He quickly removed his coat, balling it up and gently putting it under Sweets head as he lay with his eyes shut. He turned back to Brennan.

"I'm pulling this piece out but I'll need you to put immediate pressure on it." She instructed him as they both looked at the large shard protruding from Sweets upper arm. She quickly removed it and Booth applied heavy pressure causing Sweets eyes to shoot open.

Booth looked down to what were normally Sweets' large and soft chocolate eyes, now fused with nothing but red and emptiness. Sweets was about to shout out at the pain when he began his deep and excruciating cough that rocked his body involuntarily.

"Where is that medic Booth?" Brennan asked working quickly to stop the bleeding from the other wounds.

Booth didn't realize his hands were shaking so much until he pulled out his phone but dropped it under their tremor. It hit the table by Sweets hand. He went to change hands on the pressure wound and before he could reach for it Sweets hand reached for the phone and pushed it off the table and onto the floor. Booth looked to Sweets wondering why he did that as Sweets looked at Booth, a cold and hard stare, a stare that read for him not to call, _let me die_.

"No Sweets, no, not now." Booth said as Sweets eyes changed to a slight plea.

"What is it?" Brennan asked causing Booth to look up at her worried stare.

"Nothing, what's next?" He asked and looked back to Sweets who had closed his eyes. He looked him over and saw more glass, some smaller riddled along his side and imbedded in his bare feet.

"Bones, what's next, what do we do next?" Booth repeated.

"I…I don't know Booth."

"Where the hell is that medic?" Booth shouted when he noticed Sweets was a little too still.

Behind them the web cam continued it's feed as four sets of eyes of Arastoo, Angela, Cam and Hodgins watched helplessly, standing close together.

"This isn't, this can't be a goodbye." Cam said as a tear escaped. Arastoo noticed she didn't even try and bat it away.


	12. Chapter 12

8.

_Hmmm, do I not like Jennifer Warren? Was stripping her of her skin a bit obvious? __J I'm just disappointed that the show finally decided to send Sweets a girl and she's a carbon copy of Daisy. It not only lacks a bit of creativity but come on, obviously it didn't work the first time with her. First of all Sweets isn't like 22 anymore, we can stop pairing him up with near college girls as he's now closer to like 30. Secondly why do the girls have to be SO annoying, have a ponytail, be an intern? I liked that one FBI gal he was paired up with that one time, someone a little gutsy or **something, **someone who can challenge Sweets into becoming more, deeper and really show a personal growth. Daisy & Warren also have to show that Sweets is a real sex fiend in bed, come on let's get to something a little deeper, because Warren is just a Daisy part II._

_And yes I have not forgotten about the Murder in the Family. I will be finishing that soon, I got really intrigued by this one. So much for doing them side by side!_

_And another update, sorry this took me so long, I seemed to have a cold and yesterday I wrote about 8 sentences. I couldn't quite get my mind in order. Let's try today for we must know what happens to Sweets!_

"How are you?" Cam asked immediately approaching Brennan once they arrived at the hospital.

"I'm fine." Brennan said simply as she rose to hug her friend Angela.

"When I saw you on that table…" Angela said her voice breaking. "I was so scared."

"Yes, the drugs wore off, I'm fine." Brennan said in a short and clipped tone.

Booth & Brennan had been sitting, anxiously waiting in the room bearing the same name since they had arrived fifteen minutes before. They were quiet, a fact that left the three newest arrivals of Cam, Hodgins and Angela on edge.

"Arastoo is staying at the lab in case we need anything." Cam said unsure of what to say. Brennan and Booth nodded though the words had hardly sunk in.

"We couldn't see everything that went on, the webcam was a little limited." Angela explained trying to start a conversation.

"Yaz de Gaul is dead." Booth ran a hand thru his hair. He hadn't had much time to think about killing Yaz until now. Even an evil life had a weight that went with when it was taken. "Sweets is, being checked out." Booth wasn't sure how to describe what was going on with Sweets, in part because he didn't know.

"How was he, when you brought him in?" Hodgins asked as they took a seat closer to the duo as well as Angela & Cam.

Brennan seemed in a sort of fog as she picked at some blood that was in her fingernails from when she dug the glass out. She had washed her hands twice, but it didn't seem to want to go away.

"He was…alive." She answered.

"Were you able to classify his condition?" Cam continued to prod, not noticing Brennan's uncharacteristically quiet nature.

"No, it went really fast." She said very quietly. Booth silently took her hand in his, a gesture not lost on them.

"This is far more serious." Cam said based on how the two were acting. They had only been able to see Sweets for brief seconds on the web cam as he was hurled past it.

"He was pretty bad." Booth said hoping to spare Brennan as it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it. "He had some glass on him and we got some of it off when the medics came in. But he, he looked terrible."

Cam tried to define _terrible_ in her medical mind but it wasn't specific enough.

"He was like a ghost." Booth said noting her creased eyebrows. "I swear he was so thin you could see thru him."

They stopped asking questions and sat silently while their minds ran wild with fears and speculations. They had a habit of questioning everything, that didn't stop when it came to this.

"I understand you are the agent in charge of the case?" A doctor asked approaching. The team stood with a sense of relief that news was to come but they wanted to correct the middle aged doctor- they were not _just_ agents on a case.

"Yes, I'm Agent Booth but we are friends of Sweets too."

"Ah, yes, I saw he has no living relatives." The doctor said looking back at his clipboard. They felt a lacking sense of sympathy from the doctor that did not put them at ease.

"How is he doctor?" Cam asked hoping to appeal to him.

"Dr. Smith." He said identifying himself. "He is in serious condition currently." Dr. Smith didn't soften the blow any, something they weren't sure if they appreciated or not.

"He will need quite some time to recover." He further explained when he saw they were awaiting a further explanation. "Do you need some sort of paperwork?"

He seemed to be surprised they were all still standing around.

"Well, no, we'd like to see him." Angela explained.

"I'm sorry, we can't do that at this time." Dr. Smith explained to several surprised faces.

"Why is that Dr. Smith?" Brennan asked thru nearly gritted teeth, she did not like to hear about things she was not allowed to do.

"Lance Sweets…"

"Dr. Lance Sweets." Brennan corrected.

"Fine, Dr. Sweets condition is critical. He has broken ribs, an infected gunshot wound, a dozen lacerations from glass cutting the left side of his body, and the more concerning issues of pneumonia and malnutrition. The combination of all of the events have led to muscle loss, breathing problems, infections, and most concerning - a fragmented mental state. At this time I do not have a good prognosis for Dr. Sweets."

"Well can't all that be cured?" Angela asked.

"The patient would need to be a little more responsive." Dr. Smith explained and none in the group took to his speaking to them like they were stupid children. "Dr. Sweets has twice removed his own IV." They quieted at the news as Booth nor Brennan had told anyone, or each other about him holding the glass, or knocking away the phone.

"We have restrained one of Dr. Sweets hands from pulling the IV out again. He now seems exhausted from trying and is resting." He cleared his throat as he finally seemed to pick up on their reactions to the news and softened his tone. "The reason I am denying you to visit him is because of his susceptibility to infection right now. Even a simple cold on his system might do intense damage."

"I think we understand that but I think that Dr. Sweets would benefit _greatly_ from seeing people who care about him after such an ordeal. Surely those aspects would outweigh the physical ones if we are each given a clean bill of health." Brennan argued since one of her benefits she saw was for herself- she wanted to see Sweets for herself.

"I understand that Dr. Sweets is a psychologist and you may be influenced by…."

"I assure you that I am not." Brennan said emphatically.

"However, I have to address the patient's physical aspects first." Dr. Smith emphasized as they all mentally narrowed their eyes at the doctor. He did not appeal to them. "I will be glad to have the desk keep you updated of his condition. Now, I should get back to my patients."

The doctor left and the team organized an unofficial sort of huddle.

"Anyone else want to hurt that guy?" Hodgins asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to see if we can't get Sweets assigned to a better doctor. If this is his best bedside manner I don't want him within five feet of Sweets." Cam said practically hissing as she said it.

"I can't just stand around here, we need to do something." Brennan said. "We should process the scene."

"You really want to go back there Bones?"

"It might be a good idea to know completely what Sweets went thru." Hodgins suggested. "It could help him recover. The FBI guys, no offense Booth, but they might not know what to look for."

"And it will give us all something to do." Angela said. "Until Cam can get a new doctor assigned."

They all called an unofficial 'break' from their 'huddle' as they all left for their respective duties. Hodgins, Angela and Brennan went back to the lab to gather equipment. Angela stayed at the Jeffersonian while the other two met Booth at the scene.

"Angie, I'm sweeping the camera across the rooms so you can recreate them at the lab. I'll start in the big room. Is this coming in clear?" Hodgins asked as Angela received the images in her office.

"Yeah, that's great Hodgins." She responded. "This is so weird, we're still processing the crime scene because it's as though the crime isn't done, it's still…"

"I know Ange, we all want to see Sweets get thru this." Hodgins answered.

"What the hell is this?" Booth asked stepping into the small room with the locks on the outside. Brennan entered the room as well to see the jars and rope lights. Brennan inspected the jars closer.

"These were missing from the other room, they are Ms. Warren's internal organs." She explained.

"Why the hell are they in here like …" Booth said but realized that Sweets must have been placed on the interior of this circle, to be made to look at them. "That bastard…"

"Booth, I understand your frustration." Brennan said upset but keeping her emotions self-contained as usual. "I have growing concerns…" Brennan's voice trailed off.

"I know Bones, I'm worried for Sweets too."

"You have got to be kidding me." A voice boomed from the other room. Booth knew in an instant it was Caroline Julian.

"Booth." Caroline said approaching him seeing the jars on the floor and seeing her shoulders sink at the realization. "He's not going to make it is he Booth?" Caroline said in a soft tone so that the other agents working on him couldn't hear.

"No, he will." Booth said with a questionable promise. "Sweets, is you know, he's goofy and annoying at times sure, but you know he's a fighter." He thought about it for a moment adding, "he always has been." _Yeah when you haven't taken him for granted or ignored him - like for the last month he was living in this hell._

"Well, we've got him in better hands now." Caroline said pulling Booth from his guilt ridden thoughts. "He's getting a new doctor and getting out of county hospital. Camille and I have that taken care of. She's overseeing his transfer now."

* * *

"I hope you know what you are doing." Dr. Smith said angrily to her as he signed the papers for Sweets over to her.

"I assure you in regards to this, I have the utmost confidence." Cam said accepting and signing the papers as well. She wanted to further chastise the doctor with harsh statements and she looked for the right ones.

"I just wanted to make him comfortable and honor his last wishes." Dr. Smith explained.

It occurred to Cam now that Sweets may have asked for them to not see him.

"Dr. Sweets has never given up on us, we will not be letting him go into that good night." Cam said walking past him and towards Sweets room.

It wasn't the crushing statement she had planned to deliver considering she had to take into account the news that Sweets may not want to see any of them. She stopped outside his room to take a breath and focus. _You're fine Cam, it's just Sweets. Just Sweets? He's that little brother you never wanted but you can't live without him now. He helped you with Michelle, with people at work, he needs your help now, don't fail him._

Cam pushed open the door and walked into the room. She felt it was a bit cool but realized the room was being tempered to allow Sweets to breathe more easily. Dr. Smith had compensated by giving Sweets layers of blankets including a down comforter for trapping heat. It was so mounding she could barely see Sweets on the bed beneath it.

As she approached she realized it wasn't just the fluff of the blanket but the fact Sweets was so pale. She recalled the fact he had been locked underground for a month and out of even the slightest sun's rays combined with the illness that had turned his skin a ghostly white.

She slipped out of her tall designer heels and set them on the chair so her bare feet could approach without disturbing sleeping Sweets as she continued to take in his appearance without his seeing the shock on her face. And the shock was there as she identified the two overlapping purple and blue bruises on his temple, another greenish in color on his cheek near the jaw.

He lay slightly curled towards his right though not completely on his side as though unconsciously keeping pressure off his back. She recalled him being thrown into the wall and then across the room, landing on his back so she expected there to be at least two if not more painful bruises there. She did have concerns that lying this way may cause difficulty breathing as she could hear the labored sound as soon as she had entered.

Sweets appeared to have pushed off the breathing assist with his free arm which lay across his side while his right arm was restrained to the side of the bed. The sight infuriated Cam and she moved towards the restraint.

As she looked down at it she could see the layers of bruises on his arms and wondered how numerous they were on the skin she could not see below the blanket. She rested Sweets now free hand on the bed gently after she removed the restraint.

Within seconds the free left hand moved towards the right and like a spider, it climbed his hand to the IV where he struggled to pull on it- struggling because he was so weakened. Cam put Sweets left hand in hers as he slowly opened his eyes to see what had stopped him.

"Do you really want me to Sweets? To help, to end it all?" Cam asked, it was a trick question, she wanted to see what was on Sweets mind.

Sweets said nothing though his crimson bloodshot eyes screamed louder than his chocolate orbs. "No." He said though mostly it was his lips moving. "I don't want that on you, I don't want that on anyone but me."

Cam had to strain to listen and once he was done Sweets started a violent coughing fit that rocked the rest of his body in an even greater pain. Cam immediately moved to help reposition the oxygen mask though Sweets resisted. Luckily for her his weakness was to her advantage as she replaced the mask as he easily tired. She did know that merely giving treatment was only half the task, Sweets accepting it was going to be another.

"Dr. Sweets." She said calmly and evenly. "I know it hurts now. I know it's horrific now. But it won't always be like this…"

Cam's voice faded out as the screams from the girls took over, Warren's eyes going from pain to death - over and over again. Sweets couldn't hear anything Cam said though her dark eyes grew more desperate as she tried to reach Sweets but she could see was slipping away. The harder she tried to pull him back the harder he fell away. There was little reaction but hot burning tears from his sore and inflamed eyes. She finally realized his lips were asking to "make them stop."

Not wanting to call for help, but not wanting Sweets to suffer she called for Dr. Smith's assistance. He brought what she asked for and in moments Sweets was forced to drift off. His body relaxed and Cam was glad when Dr. Smith left, and without snarky remarks.


	13. Chapter 13

9.

"Don't make me push you down Camille." Booth threatened with a steely resolve.

"Don't make me have to stop you Seeley." Cam hissed back.

The remaining three members of the team looked on as the two rams prepared to butt horns. Hodgins and Angela stood wide eyed as Brennan stepped between them.

"Certainly Dr. Soroyan realizes how much we all want to see Dr. Sweets and will understand why we are questioning her banning us from seeing him." Brennan's pointed words shot at Cam.

"Look guys, I'm not saying you can't see him."

"Yeah, because we worked pretty hard at getting rid of the last guy who said that to us, want to be next?" Hodgins asked.

Cam tried again this time trying to be calmer, explain better. "Look I know you want to see him. And you can from the window." She held up her hand to their objections and continued. "He's sick guys, really sick, and you know that. Just give him till the end of this week and he should be over the worst part of the pnemonia when his ribs heal and then and can receive visitors."

She noted the slight sense of compromise in their body language. She wasn't sure how they were going to take the next bit. "I'm having him transferred to a facility."

"What kind of a facility?" Angela asked as she could feel their tension radiate.

"Yeah, why does he have to go to a facility?" Hodgins began.

"Yeah, I mean won't being in a place like that be way worse?" Booth argued. "He should be with people who care…"

"Guys!" Cam said stopping them from complete exhaustion. "I know two of you saw him. It's not just the medical condition, Sweets is in a bad place, mentally, and we can't help him." She sighed hoping shew as reaching them. "I'm sure that Dr. Sweets would be very touched that everyone cares so much, but right now he's just not there. And I have to consider the best place to get him back."

"Is this place reputable, I mean, is it the best there is?" Brennan asked. "Because if this is a case of what insurance will pay then I will be more than happy to send him to a better place…"

"I know the head of the facility, we were in medical school together, he's top notch." Cam explained. "It is semi-private and receives some state funds. I assure you that we will still be able to visit Dr. Sweets and he will be in good hands."

"And you and Bones can monitor all his progress?" Booth asking hoping that the work would be double checked. He still didn't like the idea of shipping Sweets off but he recalled the moment Sweets looking at him with a desire to die, a room full of body organs for him to stare at, Booth knew deep down that a hug and getting back to work wasn't going to fix this.

"Yes of course." Cam said. "I have no intentions of dropping Dr. Sweets off like a stray at the pound."

"It just feels sort of like, we did abandon him for a month already." Angela said thinking back to the beginning of the ordeal. "I just don't want to do that again."

"We won't." Booth said with a resolve in his voice that made them all believe it instantly.

"Well if you want to see him I'll show you the way." Cam suggested. "If you want me to tell him anything I can. I just want to minimize the interaction with him for now."

"And we can see him at the end of the week?" Angela asked in a childlike tone as though she didn't that promise to be forgotten.

"As long as he is physically up to it yes." Cam confirmed.

"Well, what can we do?" Hodgins asked. "Can we do anything else?"

"I can take care of the bureau stuff." Booth offered. "I'll talk to the director and everyone and get whatever they need, ask them to keep it quiet and details short."

"And if he's going to be there a while then I can take care of his stuff like his apartment and mail and bills." Angela said. They now seemed to feel better if they had a task at hand to deal with.

"This way then." Cam said and noted that even Brennan and Booth followed. She didn't say anything since she too was anxious to look in on him too.

"Oh." Angela said looking in the glass at a drug induced sleeping Sweets. For a moment Angela was glad she was on the other side of the glass, she didn't want to go in, she didn't know what to say if she were.

Hodgins phone began to ring causing him to quickly retrieve it from his pocket. In a quiet hallway the sound was intrusive.

"Hey, yeah, Arastoo, she's right here." Hodgins said. "Yeah she's been busy, but we'll call you back okay….what…where…yeah…we're on our way, all of us."

They looked back to Hodgins with irritation, they weren't planning on going anywhere.

"Arastoo received the rest of the evidence from the crime scene from the FBI. He was testing the organs for what the girls were drugged with and he found, notes."

"Notes?" Cam asked confused.

"In the organs of Jessica Warren, there were six total." He explained. "In order they read, 'this' 'isn't' 'over' 'there' 'are' 'more'."


	14. Chapter 14

10.

_And the plot just keeps thickening… You know for a story that was going to be a few chapters about a bank heist, this just keeps evolving. Hope you're having the fun reading as I am writing. Still feeling a little angsty…_

The team stood around the six words glaring up at them on the platform table as though it were another victim itself to analyzed.

"I'm just at a loss here guys." Angela said staring at them. "How are there more?"

"Well the guy is psycho, is it really a surprise?" Hodgins asked.

"_Was_." Cam emphasized. "Yaz de Gaul is dead."

"Is he?" Hodgins asked. "I mean, this is just so weird."

"I killed him, he's dead." Booth said in a voice that wasn't to be questioned.

"Okay, so why more clues, more victims?" Angela queried.

"He's psycho?" Hodgins offered again.

"No, he's got a plan, something that lives on past him." Booth said. "What are these anyway, this doesn't look like paper." Booth pointed to the clues.

"They are not, paper would have disintegrated." Brennan explained.

"They look to me like a type of plastic." Hodgins offered.

"I've examined them." Arastoo began. "The words were carved in them. We can see them because the blood ran between the groves, staining them."

"Does this give us any leads?" Booth asked, his headache pounding.

The room fell to silence as they all pondered the possibilities. Truth be told they were exhausted after the first round of murders and the Sweets find. The silence fell when Cam's phone rang.

"Yes okay, I'll be right there." She said hanging up.

"Is he okay?" Their worried voices asked before she could even click end.

"Yes, he's fine. Well, as much as can be. They were just calling me to say he was being transferred and I wanted to be there."

Cam could read their faces which read 'so do we.'

"It's a pretty small vehicle and…" Cam began.

"It's okay, we should get to work on this case." Brennan said, working to deter her thoughts to something she could wrap her mind around. Somehow a killer was easier to comprehend than her worry for Sweets.

"I'll be back soon and I'll give you an update." Cam said practically running from the room so she could avoid their glares and imploring glances.

"Okay, so where do we start?" Hodgins asked.

"Back at the beginning, again." Booth said rubbing his eyes.

* * *

Cam wished the medical van didn't rock so much. She had doped Sweets up on paid meds quite a bit so the multiple moves wouldn't bother him much but she could still see his eyes twitch at the harder bumps. She took one of his hands in hers but he didn't return the grip.

"Dr. Sweets, we are almost there." Cam said trying to assure him. "And I want to tell you again, this is a great facility. I know the director, he's promised to take great care of you."

Sweets stared at the ceiling uninterested. Cam realized she hadn't heard the young man's voice in a month and she longed for an argument with him.

"And everyone wants to come and see you, Angela made me promise. And I think Dr. Brennan has checked and rechecked their references dozens of times." Cam laughed but she got no reaction from Sweets. She put her other hand around his.

"You're not giving up on us Dr. Sweets. You can't get rid of us this easily."

Cam noted that Sweets didn't react to what she said. He seemed lost in a memory and by the look in his eyes, it wasn't a good memory. The van stopped and the back doors soon opened. She stepped out while two techs began to slowly remove the gurney. They sensed Cam's attentiveness and took even greater care as they moved at a molasses pace.

"Dr. Saroyan!" A kind voice said approaching her. She turned to see the man in a lab coat approaching her.

"Dr. Brown, I didn't expect to see you." She said warmly shaking his hand.

"I knew you were coming and that your patient was very special. I wanted to be here first hand. I haven't even worn this is in years." He said motioning to his jacket. "I'm glad it still fits."

"Oh, well as long as I didn't trouble you." Cam said as they followed a distance behind Sweets and lowered their voices.

"No trouble, I know you said this young man is very special to you. Of course all of our patients are but I've known you a long time Cam, I could tell in your voice, this, this was important."

Hearing someone else say it made Cam realize just how true it was.

"It's funny Dr. Brown, we've worked together for years, and I hadn't thought much more of Dr. Sweets than a valuable member of our team, but seeing him, now, I just…" Her voice broke off.

"Want to help." He finished for her and she nodded. "Well, you've done the right thing. I've reviewed all the records you've sent me about the incident. It was very thorough. It would be quite a hellish ordeal mentally, the physical is another issue too. Is there any change, physically since he was first admitted?"

"He hasn't hardly said a word. Which for Dr. Sweets is different." Cam said, she wanted to start with something easy. "His broken ribs led to pneumonia, the shallow breathing has built up the fluid, most of that was removed by the hospital staff but his breathing is still very labor intensive. The infection to his gunshot wound has been treated well, but needs to be looked after as well as the sutures from the cuts-that came from the glass. Most of all he's terribly underweight and still very weak. I'm afraid there is some muscle damage."

"I see we are up against quite a struggle." Dr. Brown said. He had read the reports and he knew but he was curious what bothered Dr. Saroyan since she knew the man so well.

"Dr. Brown," Cam began stopping them to put even greater distance between them and Sweets as they entered the facility. "Do you have people come back from this sort of thing, mentally? The psychological I'm afraid is more his bit, than mine."

"Well, all psychological breaks are hard to compare to another." Dr. Brown explained. "Each person reacts differently to a situation based on what they have seen before."

"This must have been a shock to Dr. Sweets, I'm sure his life has been pretty cushy." Cam said though she paused for a second, there always seems to be a dark glint in Sweets eyes, a quietness when it came to violence that she often wondered about.

"Dr. Saroyan?" Dr. Brown asked pulling her from her thoughts.

"Yes, I was just thinking, I don't know much about Dr. Sweets, before coming to work alongside us."

"Well, I can see that you care for him now." Dr. Brown said as they arrived at the entrance to a room. The room was sparse though bright with sunlight. "Here is where he will be staying. You're welcome to visit as you like but some notice is much appreciated if we are having a session."

"Are visits good?" Cam asked as she watched the techs carefully, on three, move Sweets from the gurney to the bed.

"As I said before the mind is a difficult place to diagnose. However, I do feel that visits are an anchor for people to reality. You mentioned on the phone he has no family. I think if you are able, and your friends, he will find comfort in your presence. It may take some time, so I urge you to not be discouraged if you do not see immediate results."

"Uh, sir…" One of the tech said looking at Sweets.

Cam felt her heart race as he was obviously concerned around something. Cam and Dr. Brown entered the room, one each on Sweets side.

"What is it Sweets?" Cam asked putting a hand lightly on what she knew was a bruised shoulder. She wanted to offer comfort, not more pain.

Sweets eyes were squeezed shut.

"I think he's in pain, I have him some before we left but…" Cam said growing nervous.

Dr. Brown motioned for a nurse for more.

"Just until he's settled." He offered, not wanting to addict his patient either.

After a moment Sweets body settled, unable to fight against the medications that were administered. His eyes remained fully shut. Dr. Brown quietly left the room giving them both a moment alone before Cam left.

"Dr. Sweets, we're settled in now." Cam said sitting next to the bed. "You should feel better once you're more comfortable. And if you need anything, you can always ask for us okay?" Cam saw no response from Sweets whose eyes were still shut. She wondered why he was almost so adolescent about not wanting to look at her. She knew that wasn't a fair assessment from what he had experienced. She didn't know what else to say so she turned to leave. She noticed for a second that Sweets still looked pale in the bright sun light, though the sun would do his skin, and his health some good.

She walked out of the room and when a thought occurred to her, she turned quickly to run back in. She drew the shades removing the light from the room. Sweets instantly released the tight grip on his eyes. His eyes didn't open, but they weren't screwed shut anymore.

"Sorry, Sweets, I forgot you weren't used to the light." Cam said and she wasn't positive but she thought she may have gotten a slight nod.


	15. Chapter 15

_Sorry for being lax, been sick so reading has been more my thing lately. Let's get this story back on it's updates and find out what happens to Sweets._

* * *

11.

"How is he?" Brennan asked before Cam was even completely on the platform.

Cam put on her lab coat and considered the question while she buttoned it up.

"He's all checked in and…."

"Cam, that's not what we meant and you know it." Hodgins said.

"I know. And I really don't know the answer." She said not looking at them, thinking back to her conversation with Dr. Brown and then Sweets. "He's still alive guys, so I have to believe there is hope."

"Well, this might get our minds off Dr. Sweets." Arastoo suggested. "We may have a lead."

"Really? What?" Cam asked excited.

"One of these organs is wrong. The heart in this container is marked as Anna Melmer but that would mean she has two." Hodgins explained.

"That is of course completely impossible." Brennan said.

"I agree completely." Cam said. "No argument."

"Do we know who it belongs to?" Cam asked.

"I ran a DNA test and came up with a girl, Heather Linte." Hodgins explained.

"Yeah, she went missing about four weeks ago." Angela explained.

"But there was no profile from Sweets on this." Cam stated.

"Yeah, this may have been right before he got Sweets." Angela explained. "I'm going back thru Sweets profiles to see if he dropped any hints of another murder. But I've read thru his profiles so many times I could almost recite them. I don't think there's anything here."

"Dr. Sweets may not know have known if it was done before he was taken." Arastoo suggested.

"It may also explain the absence of the other organs. If this was his first then he may have only taken the one." Brennan suggested.

"Yeah, but where's you know, the rest of her?" Angela asked.

"And the notes did say "more" not just like, one." Hodgins said.

"Okay, well let's run thru a few tests and try to find out who this girl is and what she was going. Maybe it will give us some lead and find out if there are any more out there."

* * *

"I appreciate you coming to update me Booth." The deputy director Stark said as he sat opposite Booth in his office. "Dr. Lance Sweets is an incredible asset to the bureau. He has endured a great deal."

"I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't let him go sir." Booth said while absent mindedly nibbling on a hangnail.

"Absolutely not. Not only is he an asset but with what that boy has been thru and on the job. I mean, it was the job that got him into this right?"

_And me._ Booth thought to himself. "Yes sir, his work on Yaz plus having been at the bank heist made him a target for Yaz."

"And this Yaz guy, you took him out but did he have any other agents working with him, like Acadia?"

"I believe Acadia was purely a patsy repaying a debt but I don't know if there are others sir. As I mentioned, the case looks like it might continue with the new clues that are surfacing."

"Yes, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about Booth." The director said reaching for a file.

"Senator Joe McClaskey. His daughter Amanda Jones went missing a few days ago. She's had problems with drugs and alcohol so when she went missing they thought she was off playing around making them worry. At first they wanted to not play into her hands and ignored it. Well then more time went by and they figured she was out of money. Now, they're not sure where she is."

"And you think…."

"This may be part of your case. They didn't publicize her disappearance and bring a lot of attention to her addictions, and they still don't, but I'm concerned this case may match to yours."

"And why is that sir?"

"Because Dr. Sweets was looking into her involvement when he was doing work on Yaz. I don't know the extent of it but her name was in a lot of his preliminary work on Yaz."

Booth wondered how they missed that but recalled they were so busy on Sweets profiles once the girls were captured they had ignored his work from before on Yaz. He didn't like that the director caught that before himself.

"Well we will get back to digging then." Booth said standing up.

"I hope so, you know Joe McClaskey, he's a pretty big politician."

"I understand sir." Booth said turning to leave. "And sir, Sweets, he's still, he's coming back you know."

"Good, I don't want to lose him. And I know what you're asking Booth, he's still got an office, he's still on the payroll, kid's got enough comp time to take a year off. We're not letting him go."

For the first time in the conversation Booth felt a little at ease, now back to the missing girl.

* * *

"Good afternoon Dr. Sweets." Dr. Brown said sitting by Sweets side. "And how are we feeling today?"

Sweets glanced over at the man briefly. Sweets was on the bed, uncomfortable in the position he was in but he had grown used to knowing nothing but pain.

"If you are uncomfortable tell me, we can fix it." The doctor urged.

_Good, then kill me, those cowards called friends couldn't. The voices, the screams you see doc, they don't stop. They beg and plead and they don't stop._ Instead Sweets just closed his eyes.

"Let's try something different." The doctor said approaching Sweets. Sweets eyes opened quickly as he could feel the doctor lean him forward and adjust a pillow. As Sweets lay back he did feel more comfortable and could breathe more easily.

"Would you like me to tell _you_ how you are?" Dr. Brown asked. Sweets wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"You know quite a bit about the medical field. I'm guessing you may have an idea." The doctor continued searching for clues hidden in Sweets face. He knew how to hide his emotions, perhaps even better than the stoic Dr. Brennan, he'd had years more practice.

"You have a quite a few stitches. They are healing, slowly. That would be helped if you would consider eating a little more. I heard you were not terribly interested in breakfast. I'm sure you're well aware you're critically underweight." Dr. Brown observed as Sweets eyes went back to the edge of his sheet and blanket. He observed Sweets trying to control his breathing, an attempt to keep it level. At first he thought it was just a pain from the incident until it occurred to him it was much more practiced, refined.

"Have you had any injuries like this before?" Dr. Brown asked and caught a flicker or recognition in Sweets eyes. Dr. Brown knew that was a yes when Sweets closed his eyes, a sign he was mentally chastising himself for giving something away he wanted to keep secret. Dr. Brown made a note of it and continued on with a change of subject.

"The physical injuries will all heal Dr. Sweets. I'm more concerned with what is on your mind. Do you want to talk about what comes to mind?" Dr. Brown asked in a soothing voice, not pushy, not bored. Sweets had to admire his style and adopt it on his own one day, if he could get back.

_What comes to mind? _Sweets asked himself. The only way he could function on a basic level of breathing without a panic attack was not to think about it. His brain was still in waves of clarity to complete chaos, interchanging as the seconds passed. It was exhausting and confusing. What seemed clear at one moment was foggy the next.

"Do you like music Dr. Sweets?" Dr. Brown asked pulling Sweets back to the mentally solid shore. "Perhaps music might make you feel better."

"He was not so sure that the doctor wanted to hear death metal. At the moment Sweets enjoyed the quiet so he wasn't so sure at this moment that yells and screams were the right medicine for him either.

"How about I see what I can find?" Dr. Brown said getting up to walk out of the room.

"Are you comfortable?" A voice asked. Sweets eyes were open but he couldn't place the voice.

"He must be comfortable on that nice bed." Another voice added. Sweets looked around but saw no one. He knew what it was and he knew this wasn't good.

"A lot more comfortable than when you are being ripped apart on a table isn't it?"

"Didn't you hear us Lance?" Jessica's voice ran thru this head. Sweets covered his eyes as though protecting himself from their insinuations. "Why didn't you help us Lance?" They began to shout at him.

"Stop." Sweets said in his hoarse voice but the continued to shout at him. "Stop!" He pleaded again but in his mind their volume only grew in the completely silent room.

Dr. Brown reentered the room to find Sweets nearly blue from having difficulty breathing. His arms were wrapped as tightly as he could manage around his head as though protecting himself against something.

"Dr. Sweets, please calm down." He urged while trying to remove his arms. Whatever episode Sweets was having it was more intense than he would have predicted.

"I need assistance!" Dr. Brown called.

* * *

"I found something!" Angela called excitedly.

Booth & Brennan went to her office and were joined by Hodgins. They felt like they were missing people when they knew Sweets wasn't going to be joining them. Soon Cam entered having hung up her phone. Her face bore a heavy expression.

"What's up?" Angela asked Cam

"It's nothing."

"I'm not continuing until you spill it."

"Dr. Sweets had an episode."

"What kind of an episode?" Booth asked now troubled.

"Dr. Brown isn't entirely sure, something had set him off. It was severe enough he had to be sedated." Cam explained. They knew that wasn't good.

"Maybe tomorrow will be a better day." Hodgins said encouragingly. They weren't sure why but they weren't entirely prepared for Sweets to be in such bad shape. They knew his condition sure, but what they were more familiar with was Sweets himself, always happy and optimistic, not letting much bother him. It was a juxtaposition to what they saw now, a hollow version of that person.

"Well, I did some digging." Angela began while pulling images up on her digital screen. "Heather Linte was last seen one day before Sweets was taken while Amanda Jones went missing the same day you found Sweets, what about four days ago?"

"Wait, how did he have time?" Hodgins asked.

"That's the thing." Angela said flipping thru cell phone calls and other data on the screen. "Her last call out was to a friend about 8 p.m. and it lasted a few minutes. You guys were with Sweets then. I double checked and Booth's call to the ambulance was at 8:16 p.m."

"So the cases aren't related." Booth said.

"Except for this." Angela said pulling up images of the girls who Yaz murdered. "Except for Jessica Warren, they're all sorority sisters with Amanda Jones, and Heather Linte."

"That can't be a coincidence." Hodgins suggested.

"How did we not get that connection before?" Brennan asked.

"Honestly we didn't look for it. We looked for Yaz thru Sweets profiles. Sweets didn't have access to that information. We followed his lead, which well, did lead to him." Angela explained.

"Stark said in Sweets profiles of Yaz that Amanda Jones name came up." Booth said recalling the conversation.

They turned to the virtually untouched pile of papers Mrs. Robertson, Sweets secretary had dropped off for them.

"Now presumably Jessica Warren and even Dr. Brennan being taken by Yaz were aimed at Sweets, why break from them and go back to these other girls?" Cam wondered out loud.

"Well he couldn't have taken Amanda Jones, the time doesn't work." Angela reminded them.

"Maybe someone else had her phone." Booth suggested as he began to scan the pages and wished they had the digital versions instead.

"Here." Brennan said reading. "Yaz de Gaul is a sociopath with extreemely violent tendencies. His focus is on those who have the potential to stop his work."

"No kidding, too bad Sweets couldn't have learned that ahead of time." Angela added.

Brennan went back to reading. "Amanda Jones, a 21 year old college student and member of Tri-Sigma was suspected of working for Yaz de Gaul."


	16. Chapter 16

FYI, I still don't own Bones. Not even close.

* * *

12.

"Working for him?" Booth asked taking the papers from Brennan. "What the hell does he mean working for him?"

"Could make sense." Hodgins said, eyes widening. "She's working for him and he's making sure she stays in line as her friends are disappearing. I mean terrorizing was his thing."

"So her first friend to go is Heather Linte." Cam says. "Her heart is here, where is the rest of her?"

"Do we really, truly want to know?" Angela asked considering the possibly grizzly answer.

"Well, her murder was not like the rest." Brennan reminded them as they looked to the jar with only her heart present. "And Yaz seemed to know that we would eventually find these jars, maybe not him present with them."

"He probably figured he would have eluded us, left the jars behind and a mystery for us." Booth suggested.

"Yeah and now he's dead and we've got a missing body and a missing girl." Hodgins summed up.

"And one damaged psychologist who didn't deserve a damn thing that happened to him." Cam said looking at her phone again.

"What's new Cam?" Angela asked at the troubled look on her face.

"Dr. Sweets hasn't been responsive since the drugs they administered to calm him down wore off." She explained.

"What can we do?" Hodgins asked, anxious.

"I don't know." She said with a sigh. "Anyone here a psychologist?"

Brennan looked to the floor, she knew they were all thinking of her feelings on the topic but they felt wrong at the moment.

Booth spared her the embarrassment. "No, but we're his friends, and that's something."

* * *

Booth and Cam went to visit Sweets while the rest continued to dig thru Sweets profiles on Yaz to find out more what kind of work Amanda Jones was doing for him.

"Dr. Soroyan!" Dr. Brown cheerfully greeted her.

"Dr. Brown, hello, this is Special Agent Seeley Booth." Cam said introducing him as they shook hands.

"Hey doc, how's he doing?" Booth asked.

"Well, I wish I could say a great deal better. I am surprised at his reaction, though the mind can be difficult to diagnose." The doctor's expression darkened for a moment.

"What is it Dr. Brown?" Cam asked.

Dr. Brown cleared his throat before he continued. "Dr. Sweets is very adept at withdrawing into himself. I feel as though he has had years of practice at it. What do you know about him in the time you've known him?"

There was a deafening silence at that. Thought they had known Sweets for years now they hardly knew much more than his romantic disasters and his random knowledge in the areas of Star Wars & chess. The silence wasn't lost on Dr. Brown.

"I see that Dr. Sweets is good about hiding from a lot of people."

"Well, it's just that Sweets talks, a lot." Cam said almost smiling as she thought of him talking endlessly at times. "But not about himself."

"The reason that I ask is during our time yesterday with him I noted certain, reactions in our discussion. It caused me to pull his medical recrods." Dr. Brown.

"Well, aside from his being shot a few years ago, which was by another agent by accident, I don't think…"

"There's more." Booth said under his breath. Cam's eyes turned to Booth as she seemed to be wordlessly asking him why she didn't know.

"Yes, I saw that in the reports. It did not list the cause, but I can only guess how a child of 5 gets so many broken bones." Dr. Brown said with much weight in his voice.

Booth nodded and Cam's eyes widened.

"Sweets? Our Sweets?" She asked in disbelief.

Booth didn't want to say anymore. He was pretty sure that Cam could grasp at the general concept.

"I imagine that time he withdrew into himself quite a bit, and such a young age. I'm asking because I was hoping you might be able to tell me how he came out of it, perhaps I could talk to family that helped him. I would imagine he was placed in a different home."

Booth tried to recall the details of a conversation had years ago. "He was, the parents were older and they passed away."

"Oh, and no other family?"

"No." Booth said as Cam watched the exchange with shock still in her system.

"Well, we will just have to do the best we can." Dr. Brown said and even though his voice was encouraging it still had a hint of worry as to how to solve this enigma of its own - how to save Sweets from himself.

* * *

"We've moved him out of his room for some interaction with the other patients." Dr. Brown said leading them down a hall. "Since the first incident of the bright lights we have been gradually adjusting him to more light."

The salarium was an open room, almost like a porch but enclosed in glass. Some of the patients walked around, some played various games. The room had an upbeat feeling and not what Booth feared it would be like. He relaxed as the patients seemed content though they suffered from various illnesses.

"We hoped the feeling of being around more people might encourage Dr. Sweets to not feel as though he was in captivity still. We've been sure to leave the door to his room open at all times. The details of the case you sent us, while naturally disturbing are very helpful in leading us to aspects we should avoid."

Booth nodded as the doctor spoke. He had his reserves about this place and came today prepared to haul Sweets out if it was not to his liking. So far he was impressed and relaxed about the atmosphere. He continued to scan the large room when his eyes located Sweets, causing his stomach to turn.

Booth walked with purpose near Sweets, each step forward causing a little more heartache. Though parked in a wheel chair by the window, the light did little to give life to his pale skin. Somewhere in Booth's mind he had hoped the frail doctor may have become a little more plumb, if even just so the bones were not so prevalent. Instead he sat, in a daze, whether drugged or out of it Booth wasn't sure, but Sweets emanated a sense of lifelessness.

"We had administered a medication to calm him yesterday." Dr. Brown said as he and Cam approached, but he's been much like this since.

"Could his lessened body weight account for a delay in the drugs wearing off?" Cam asked as Booth continued to access Sweets appearance.

"I took that into account when administering it. I'm afraid it's more in his mind." Dr. Brown explained. "I'll leave you alone to visit with him." He said leaving.

"Hey Sweets." Cam said leaning over and placing her hand on his. He turned his head at the touch and barely looked up. "How are you feeling today? You're looking better."

Booth noticed even Sweets could tell that was a lie.

"Hey Sweets." Booth said still standing nearby. Booth noticed Sweets stiffened when Booth talked, as though Sweets needed to give a stronger appearance. "This is a nice place here."

What Sweets hear however was "Hey Sweets, SCREAMING, nice, SCREAMS." The altered auditory caused him wince at the voice.

"Sweets, does something hurt?" Cam asked noticing his expressions. "Are you in pain?"

Sweets eyes were red rimmed and filled with exhaustion.

"Can we get him something?" Booth asked not liking what he saw, concern growing.

"Yeah, I'll check with Dr. Brown." Cam said rushing away.

Sweets knew Booth was still there as he saw Cam rush away. He wished they weren't there to see him like that. He knew that as a pshycologist, a damn good one at that, that he should be able to get thru this. But he felt so tired and the screams wouldn't subside enough to let him rest, relax or build an appetite. The screams were his own mind reminding him of his guilt that he had done nothing to save those girls. Largely though he felt he was a lost cause, broken beyond repair.

Booth noticed the nearby plate of food completely untouched and knew something had to change and soon. He looked back to see Sweets running his hand thru his hair, pulling almost as though his head ached. In Sweets mind he could see Yaz holding Jessica Warren's heart to his face, the heat and the smell filling his senses. Sweets recalled a drop of blood falling and landing on his arm.

He looked down now and swore it was there. Booth watched as Sweets became fixated on his arm, staring at the blank skin with deep focus. Sweets opposite arm reached across and clumsily wiped across it. The then changed to picking at it, picking at the invisible blood stain.

Booth grew more concerned as the doctor increased his scouring of the skin's surface quickly changing it to a dark red. Booth was terrified Sweets was about to draw blood and looked around but Cam was still gone.

He reached his large hand across and covered Sweet's arm where he picked at it. Sweets immediately stopped picking at it and stopped. He forgot what he was so focused on just a moment before.

Sweets lifted his head higher and looked around as though trying to remember where he was. Booth let his hand go and continued to watch Sweets.

He hadn't heard Sweets voice in a month now and it was an unsettling feeling. He had nothing to roll his eyes at, no one to argue with, no one to playfully make fun of. It was discomforting and Booth realized just how much he needed Sweets. Sweets kept Booth on his toes, backed him up and was the most loyal person he knew next to Brennan.

Booth pushed Sweets wheelchair a short distance where a chair was and sat in it. He wanted to speak but the last time he had it seemed to cause Sweets pain. He was okay, for the moment. The seat was in front of a TV and Booth switched it on. The World Cup matches were on. He knew nothing about soccer but he knew Sweets did. In moments he had the station on and turned the volume way down. They sat and watched TV and after a few moments Booth noticed Sweets eyes went from staring in space movement in his eyes as he watched the screen. A few moments after Sweets' shoulders relaxed. Though they said nothing, they both began to relax.

Cam watched at a distance, glad to be able to put the needle away this time. _We can do this, _she told herself.


	17. Chapter 17

13.

_Just as I'm about to think, 'man, I'm tapped out for the day' I see an email pop up on the iPad with a great review and I'm all, 'time to dig deeper Amber!' and away I go! Let's hope this is good! __J I try and update often and get quite mad when things get in the way. If it's too long I find I have a hard time remembering the story. I have a hard time even remembering my own stories!_

* * *

"I don't get it." Angela said staring at the screen rubbing her eyes. Her husband approached and began to rub her shoulders.

"You can do it Ange."

"No, I have no clue what Sweets is saying here. It's all psycho-babbly gibberish." Angela said tossing her tablet to the side. "I've read it over and over and I get the distinct impression that Sweets is telling me everything I need to know, but I'm just not getting it."

"I'll try." Jack said taking a seat. "Or we could invite Dr. Brennan in." They laughed at that notion of a foray into the soft science. She was standing by the door as they said it but refrained from announcing herself once she heard them.

Brennan had wrestled with the notion of psychology since having met Sweets. At first she flat out refused to acknowledge it. Then as the years went by and she saw Sweets valuable input help solve cases she reexamined in. Now she was battling with the notion it might be the only way to save Sweets and solve this case. The squeaky clean killer had left few clues behind.

"Dr. Brennan," Arastoo began and pulled Brennan from her inner conflict. "Could you come and look at something?"

Brennan nodded and followed Arastoo onto the platform. He had spent a lot of time going over the remains they have received, searching for any additional clues.

"On Ms. Warren's bones I detected an anomaly, here." He said pointing. Brennan immediately went to feel the bones and found the gap.

"I do feel the break." She said checking again. "I think it was done post mortem." She didn't find the fact all that interesting. "Yaz de Gaul probably broke it when he was transporting her.

"Yes, he be packaged her bones to be delivered here. This couldn't have been broken by accident." Arastoo pointed out. "That missing piece is nowhere to be found. I've checked all the boxes and the packaging."

"Yaz doesn't do anything on accident." Brennan said thinking out loud.

"So where is that bone chip?"

* * *

"So how could it have been a good day if you didn't say anything?" Brennan asked confused as she turned the bed sheets down and proceeded to fluff the pillows precisely as she liked.

"I dunno, it's hard to explain Bones. I just was there and the more we sat and were quiet the more relaxed he was." Booth said arranging his own pillows but with far less precision. This seemed to irk Brennan some.

"I just don't see how you can tell that he was doing better when he had nothing to say."

"Sometimes Bones you just can." Booth said crawling into bed. "Perhaps you can visit him, see what I mean."

"Maybe." She said sitting down. "I wish we could communicate with Dr. Sweets, we need some details on what his profiles entailed."

"I thought they were all just a bunch of crap and a waste of time."

"No, what I said was…"

Booth interrupted her. "I know Bones, you don't like Sweets work."

"Yeah, well, right now it's the only thing that's going to find those other two bodies."

"You think they are dead?"

"It fits Yaz." She said lying against the pillow. "You think otherwise?"

"I don't know, I have a gut feeling."

"If that were the case, we should hurry in finding them. Well, Amanda Jones." She clarified since the other victim's body was missing but heart was at the Jeffersonian. That would be essential in being alive. They needed something more, something was missing from the team. That something was Sweets.

* * *

"Good morning Dr. Brennan." Dr. Brown said greeting her. He seemed to hold himself a little close to the chest when speaking with her, as though he wasn't sure if she might bit him or something. "Dr. Soroyan told me you would be visiting us today."

"Yes, well I would like to see Dr. Sweets." Brennan said looking around and taking in the facility.

"Yes, he is in his room currently. He was still very tired this morning and we were letting him rest."

Brennan stood waiting, she hadn't taken Dr. Brown's hint that he still needed rest.

"Is it this way?" She asked and Dr. Brown recalled that Cam said that Dr. Brennan was not easily detered.

"Ah, yes."

They reached the room and found Sweets awake and staring down a tray of food before him.

"Dr. Sweets, you have a visitor." Dr. Brown announced.

"Dr. Sweets possess a high level of intelligence as seen in his multiple degrees at a young age. I'm quite confident he understands that I am a visitor. Isn't that correct Sweets?"

Sweets looked up at Brennan and felt a mild sense of amusement as she spoke. He wasn't sure why but he also felt the need to back her up so he nodded to Dr. Brown. The good doctor couldn't help but notice the effect this bossy anthropologist had on the psychologist. In less than two minutes he was already more responsive to her than nearly anyone else, outside of that soccer game yesterday.

"Can you hear me okay?" Brennan asked Sweets who looked up at her. He locked eyes with her and was glad for the first time in a while the look back at him wasn't a ghastly shock. Sweets nodded yes.

"I got the impression that Booth and Cam thought you were unable to hear them clearly. Have they checked your ears?" She asked pulling up a tall stood next to the bed and peered down at him.

Sweets' shrug suggested he assumed they had.

"I'd better check." Brennan said taking the small microscope from her pocket. Sweets wondered if she often carried that. He hardly had time to think of much else, Brennan was a whirl of activity.

"This ear looks fine." She said turning his head, gently to the other side. "Yes they both look quite fine. Now is anything else bothering you?"

Sweets hardly knew what to say besides to shake his head that nothing was.

"Good, then perhaps you can help us." Brennan was hoping her fast paced style was keeping Sweets busy. She hoped she was hiding her nerves deep down at how she was really feeling.

"Booth thought you wouldn't want to work on the case, which I understand but I'm concerned one of the girls may possibly still be alive."

Sweets head perked up at that. He could help, he could be useful, he could atone for what he was unable to do before. The screams stayed quiet a moment as though cooperating.

"In your original profiles from…" Brennan didn't want to say, 'before you were brutally tortured and kidnapped' and instead went with "from a month ago, you mentioned an Amanda Jones. What can you tell me about her?"

Sweets turned his head away from Brennan as though to think back. Brennan watched Sweets eyes shift back and forth as though tapping into a recollection.

"She was…" Sweets stopped to clear his throat, bring his voice over a whisper. "The senator's daughter, uh, James, no, John…" Sweets was becoming frustrated.

"Joe McClaskey." Brennan filled in for him.

"Yeah, she uh, she came up on the radar, some photos Homeland Security had. I can't quite remember why…" Sweets rubbed his head trying to remember. He heard a faint whisper in his ear, the voices were getting angry again. His hands began an incredibly light tremble and Brennan noticed. She put a hand on Sweets shoulder lulling him back from his foray into the constant nightmare.

"I'm sorry Dr. Brennan, I guess I'm useless." Sweets said.

"Of course you're not Sweets." Her voice was softer this time, the strong façade was growing cracks. "I want to be honest with you, I did need help with the case but not if it's at the mercy of hurting you. We'll solve it." Brennan got up from the seat and was looking for a more comfortable seat. Sweets assumed she was leaving.

"I'm not worth it." He said in a bare whisper but Brennan's excellent ears caught it.

"What makes you say that?"

"They do." Sweets said and Brennan was instantly deeply concerned about what that meant. "The voices, their screams, they know, I know, I should have helped."

Sweets hands were not shaking more intensely. Brennan was afraid in his frail condition he may have a heart attack. She also realized what the issue with the hearing must have been, that Sweets thoughts were being constantly interrupted by his subconscious and the terrifying memory of the screams.

"Sweets." Brennan said but she received no response. She put both her hands in Sweets and squeezed. The shaking lessened in intensity and would eventually subside.

"No one blames you." She said but Sweets shook his head. She knew he blamed himself. "There was nothing you could do." She tried to reason with him. "Your thoughts are completely unreasonable. You could in no way done any more than you did."

Her pleas fell to deaf ears as Sweets had no interest in listening to them.

"Your feeling of guilt is incorrect. The guilt should rest solely on Yaz de Gaul. You should never have been put thru that." She said and wanted to add, _or the many other things that you've had to go thru in your lifetime. _That caused Brennan to think of what Sweets parents must have faced when they adopted him, so broken and frail them too. She tried to tap into that.

"Sweets you are incredible." She said trying to get his eyes to meet hers so he knew she meant it. "You are not alone. You never will be."


	18. Chapter 18

14.

_Thought I might try something new here since sometimes the new chapter might be a little distanced from when they get posted. Sometimes when I read other writer's stories I have to think back to what the story is about when you're reading more than one, so maybe this might help?_

**Sweets is slowly recovering while still plagued with pneumonia, broken ribs, breathing problems and a serious weight issue. The team is on the hunt for Amanda Jones, the senator's daughter who might have been working for Yaz and might still be alive. They've discovered a missing bone chip from Jessica Warren's femur, still haven't found the rest of Heather Linte (besides her heart) and no one has any clues except what's in Sweets mind and he's in no shape to talk about it.**

"How did it go?" Booth asked as soon as Brennan sat down at the diner. They wanted to talk about it together before going to the rest of the group with it, as though to protect Sweets if they could.

"It was a lot harder than I thought Booth." Brennan said still feeling the knots in her stomach. "I tried to put on a really brave face but it was, it was just so hard to look at him."

"He'll get better Bones." Booth promised and hoped that would come to existence.

Brennan nodded hoping it would materialize as well and continued with her assessment. "He was able to focus on the conversation and after some time he did recall his work on Yaz de Gaul. The details weren't completely clear to him, as in the specifics of the case. When we got into details about while he was captured he was far less receptive to talking about it."

"Well I would have guessed that Bones."

"Booth you mentioned it was like he wasn't hearing you when you talked. I think Dr. Sweets is suffering from auditory recollections." Brennan noticed she lost Booth there. "He's hearing voices, I think it's the screams from the victims."

Booth thought of it a moment, what Sweets had seen and experienced and it sent a shiver down his spine, _watching and hearing _those women die.

"Sweets is the only one who can give us any clues about what happened in that room." Booth said knowing the delicate balance between Sweets well being and finding a missing girl."

"Do you Yaz knew that, kept leaving Sweets to live so he'd have to suffer thru that, forever?" Brennan felt her eyes brim with water. The thought that Sweets would have to live listening to screams the rest of his life.

"I think Yaz likes to make people suffer, but he's not going to get away with it. We're going to help Sweets and we're going to find the girl."

* * *

"Okay guys, we need to sift thru _everything _we have." Cam said following her brief discussion with Brennan & Booth after the latest Sweets visit. "We know that Sweets had a front row seat for all the details and he might know something that we don't, but we can't ask him right now, we need to help him by solving this ourselves, give him some time to come back."

"Cam I've gone thru these profiles a dozen times." Angela said exhausted.

"Well bring us up to speed and maybe we can find something together." Cam said and Angela nodded and began her summary.

"Sweets suspected that Amanda Jones was working for Yaz. Homeland Security had been following Yaz for some time so they took some pictures of them meeting. I don't have the pictures but Sweets must have seen them because he noted that in their meetings she kept him at arm's length and didn't trust him."

"So it is possible that she was forced to work with him." Hodgins added.

"Yeah, how I don't know." Angela added.

"She was a party girl, is that correct?" Cam asked.

"Yeah, big time. She was often at fund raising events but she was always seen texting during them, it was all pure show." Angela explained pulling up a few images from social media sites to illustrate her point. "She was popular with people but a lot of people were commenting on her immature behavior."

"I'm sure her father was one of them." Cam said.

"Yeah, there's one picture in here where you can see him pulling her aside." Hodgins said and Angela pulled it up.

"Yeah, he looks pretty upset." Cam noted looking at the photo which led to a question. "What about the father, any sense that he had something to do with this, something that got out of control?"

"I don't think so." Angela said. "In looking thru Sweets profiles he noted that the father was incredibly forgiving and doting of his daughter, both privately and publicly. Homeland Security had asked Sweets for some follow up on that but he suggested the father was clean, well, as much as a politician can be."

"So the dad is out, somehow Yaz got to Amanda Jones." Cam surmised.

"Well the time frame suggests that perhaps Yaz wanted her to take it seriously." Hodgins began. "First Heather Linte goes missing followed by her sorority sisters. The activity on Amanda's social medial sites goes _way _down after Heather Linte goes missing. It's almost as though she's doing it just for show but she's not up to it."

"So Yaz had her on a short chain, she was free to roam but he was keeping her in line by killing her friends." Cam said realizing the darkness of it.

"Yaz then skips to killing Jessica and taking Dr. B. Both of those presumably because he knew Sweets was onto him with the clues." Hodgins suggested. "It's fits with Sweets profile of Yaz. Yaz will go after the people who try and stop him or that owe him like Acadia."

"So along with that line of thinking, if Acadia owed him, Sweets could have stopped him, what's the motive for Amanda Jones?" Cam threw out the query.

"Could it have been to get to her father?" Hodgins suggested.

"Sweets went thru Senator Joe McClaskey's recent political activity, and I went thru it again from the time Sweets was kidnapped thru now and it's all very on par with his usual work, I don't think it was to sway him." Angela explained.

"And he didn't need the money after everything he took from the bank heist." Cam advised.

"Ugh!" Hodgins said. "What are we missing?!"

"I have news!" Brennan said ushering into the room with a smile on her face, smiles were rare in recent days. "Dr. Brown just called, Sweets remembered something!"

"Oh that's great, how is he?" Cam asked knowing that from what Booth & Brennan said that journeys into the recent past were rather painful for Sweets.

Brennan's smile faded as she hadn't considered that. "Dr. Brown didn't say, he just said that Sweets insisted he call us right away and you didn't have your phone." Cam felt that she was being chided with that remark but pressed on as that was just Brennan. She also noticed how proud Brennan was at Sweets break thru.

* * *

The break thru for the team was more like a breakdown for Sweets. The dinner he had finally eaten over the exhausting hour it took him to feed it to himself now lay before him on the floor. He was half impressed there was so much on the floor and the other half was increasingly nauseated at the sight.

He felt bad when the nurse came in to clean it up and mouthed his apologies twice.

"It's okay hon, it's my job. Don't think nothing about it!" The smiling heavy nurse impressed upon him.

"Sorry." Sweets could only say again.

Once the bile was gone and the smell contained she turned to see Sweets trying to help himself from his wheelchair to his bed. He barely had a foot out on the ground before his body began to crumble under the miniscule weight.

"Hold on honey, let me help you." She said catching him with much too much ease. She helped him on the bed for his safety but she could tell he wanted to do it himself. She was sure to position him on his side opposite the stitches from the glass.

"You know honey, Rome wasn't built in a day. Take your time, you'll get there." She encouraged him.

"I'm just tired of being so tired." Sweets said.

"Well maybe tomorrow we can get you outside, and when the time is right, taking some steps. But first you got to get your strength up and keep your food down." She added a smile and Sweets couldn't help but notice her genuine desire to help. Even the angry screams seemed too tired to yell tonight.

"Okay." Sweets agreed and soon fell asleep.

Dr. Brown watched as the nurse pulled a blanket over him and turned off a light and left.

"How is he?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Poor child." She said shaking her head as they talked in the hall. "He feels bad about everything, losing his dinner, cleaning it up, it's even as though looking at you makes him feel bad."

"I hope whatever it was he remembered was worth it." Dr. Brown asked, his tone suggesting he was unhappy that Sweets has pushed himself so hard to remember it.

* * *

"So what did he say Bren?" Angela inquired, anxious for anything that could bring the long case to a close.

"He knows where Heather Linte's body is. Booth is going to check it out now." Brennan said and they were all stunned at the news.

"Wow, that's huge." Cam noted.

"Sweets recalled that Yaz had the body at the bunker when he arrived. She was already dead but he didn't know who she was. Sweets watched him take his car keys and smile. Sweets presumed that he put the body in Sweets car. Booth checked it out and Sweets car wasn't at Sweets apartment and Sweets drove it there that night. He's got a location on it and…"

Brennan's cell phone began to ring and she answered.

"Bones." Booth said with a voice wavering between excited and remorseful. "We found the car, the body's in the trunk. I'm sending it to you only because I'm assuming it's her. There's quite a bit of decomp here."

"I would assume so she's been in a trunk for over a month now." Brennan said.

"Yeah, this is all you on this one." Booth said turning away from the smell. "I'm sending the car and the body together because with the heat, they sort of are together now."

* * *

Two hours later the car arrived and Hodgins was ready in full dress. He stood by, near giddy as it was left so he could pick every detail of it apart. Dr. Brennan and Cam stood with a more stoic pose as they were ready to remove the body.

"Well," Cam said upon peering in the trunk. "It could very well be Heather Linte based on the hole in her chest where her heart should be."

"We should check to find if anything else is missing." Brennan suggested.


	19. Chapter 19

15.

**The team gets nowhere trying to figure out the connection between Amanda Jones and Yaz de Gaul. Sweets helps when he recalls where Heather Linte's body is but it's at the cost of a severe episode. Booth finds the car in the trunk of Sweet's car and it's taken to the Jeffersonian.**

* * *

It didn't take too terribly long to sink in for Booth to surmise that digging into his own psyche was not an easy task for Sweets, prompting a visit from Booth. Dr. Brown intercepted Booth and was all too pleased to warn Booth of the dangers of dipping too far into Sweets mind so early. Booth apologized but he was also glad to be able to tell those girls parents their daughter's body wasn't still in the unknown. It was a tight rope to walk.

Booth walked to find Sweets parked outside on a patio type area. He sat in the shade but seem comforted by the edge of the sun a few feet away. Booth didn't often lend himself to metaphors but he couldn't help but notice that Sweets was sitting in the shadows, not yet ready to enter the light.

As Booth neared he watched as a small item flew thru the air. By the time he was close he identified the game. Sweets sat slumped opposite his sore side and flicked breakfast items to the waiting crowd of squirls, birds and a shy rabbit. He was amused and at the same time concerned.

"Hey Sweets." Booth's voice caused Sweets to retreat his hand as though hiding what he had been up to. Booth pulled a nearby chair between he and Sweets and the breakfast tray table. "Looks like a pretty good breakfast."

Sweets eyed it for a second and remembered what last night's dinner had done and he had ultimately decided against it. He had a feeling the team hadn't gotten much farther on the case or else Booth wouldn't be here. He guessed they would come for more details, and making the nurse come to clean up another lost meal wasn't ideal to him.

"Hey Booth." Sweets said casually in a low voice though he didn't look up.

Booth was near beside himself, he hadn't heard Sweets voice in a long time. Granted it wasn't a happy hello, or even a greeting that didn't sound like it had been run over by a truck but he'd still take it.

"Yeah, hey." Booth realized he sounded stupid but he was trying to gather his thoughts. "Uh, yeah, the doc said you've been going well. And you're outside, that's refreshing right?"

"Yeah. It's nice." Sweets said with the same lackluster enthusiasm.

"Did you uh see Germany advanced in the World Cup?" Booth asked. He had spent a good amount of time since the last visit to learn about soccer and keep up on it.

"No, I didn't." Sweets said and wondered how long this make shift conversation was going to keep up. He wanted to get rid of the rest of breakfast before the bubbly nurse came back. He was glad they hadn't questioned why he had wanted to eat outside this morning, they just seemed glad to for him to want to get out of his room.

"Well, there's another match tomorrow, maybe I can swing by." Booth said and noted that Sweets was staring at his plate of food. "Looks pretty good, have you tried it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty dry." Sweets lied.

"I can bring you something if you know the food's not good here. Bet you miss the diner!"

_No jackass I miss my sanity, my clothes, my sense of space, my ability to keep food down, when I didn't hear constant screams and knew something besides constant pain. _Sweets knew he didn't mean to intentionally direct his anger at Booth for asking a benign question so Sweets just answered. "Yeah, sounds good."

"We hope to see you back at work soon, Sweets." Booth couldn't bring himself to say _we miss you_, it wasn't manly, despite the fact it was true.

To Sweets ears he heard, _hurry up and get to work_.

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty close." Sweets said and Booth couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He imagined Sweets lifting the glass of OJ was like himself bench pressing the Hulk.

"You want me to help cut up these pancakes here?" Booth asked as he noticed Sweets has just pulled off sections to flick at his furry friends. They hid in the bushes eagerly waiting Booth's departure. He was determined to rid them of their snack and see Sweets eat it instead.

Sweets hadn't answered and he looked back at him as he now appeared catatonic.

"Sweets?" Booth asked again only to spot Sweets eyes narrow as though he were trying to see into something. He blinked as though pushing it away. "Sweets?" Booth asked again, alarms going off in his head.

"Cut these up…" Sweets nearly whispered. Booth recalled that's what he had just said and when considering Yaz, Sweets had picked up on that.

"Sweets, I didn't mean to.."

"He took them, he set something aside." Sweets said as though trying to look back thru a fog to see something. "I didn't notice it at first, but he took them, in an envelope."

"What Sweets, what did he take?"

"Their earrings. It didn't seem odd at first, but he put them in an envelope. I bet he gave them to someone." Sweets said jumping in his seat and snapped back to reality. In his mind he heard a scream that jarred him from that recollection while Booth only saw Sweets jump.

"Whoa, you okay?" Booth said leaning forward but Sweets waved him off and began to rub his eyes.

"Yeah fine." Sweets said in the most unconvincing voice of all time. "Does that help any?"

"Everything helps Sweets." Booth said, still concerned. "How about this breakfast. It looks pretty…"

"Dammit Booth, I don't want it." Sweets said raising his voice. He wanted to get up and walk away but he couldn't. Booth could tell Sweets didn't want him there anymore, Sweets emanated tension.

"Okay Sweets, I'll go. But I'll be back tomorrow. Germany versus Brazil alright?" Booth said slowly leaving as Sweets sunk into his seat.

Sweets was glad he was gone as he could now gasp in pain at the sting in his side. It hurt like hell and he knew he should have told the doctor about it but it was a pain like the rest. Well, note completely like the rest he know, this one felt strange now that the others were healing. His frustration grew as he hit his breakfast tray scattering it all to the ground. The furry friends headed for the hills and Sweets offered a lie to the doctor that his arm jerked and he did it by accident. The doctor gathered the plate, glad some was gone and pushed Sweets back to his room.

* * *

"He said Cherie." Caroline said in an exhausted tone since it was the second time.

"Why not, why doesn't he just let us into her room?" Booth asked. "It's his daughter that's missing. If he lets us search Amanda Jones room we might just come up with something."

"If you give me a reason chere then I can go around him to a judge."

"Sweets recalled Yaz de Gaul having removed the girls earrings and putting them in an envelope. I think he sent them to Amanda to scare her into working for him. Further proof that he had them."

"Earrings could belong to anyone chere."

"These are girls who are all about materialistic things. They know whose earrings are whose." Booth said.

"Alright chere, let me see what I can do."

* * *

"Caroline came thru alright." Brennan said as they stepped into the sorority house. She quickly noted the absence of girls in the house.

"Caroline requested they all be gone while we were here." Booth explained. "Amanda's room should be at the end of the hall."

They entered the room of a typical sorority girl's room, full of ribbons, trophies and a lot of things pink. They seemed to be mostly on the edges. The area where Amanda seemed to live most, her desk and the bed didn't hold the same feeling of "dust" that the rest of her life did.

"I'm getting a pretty clear picture that Amanda was withdrawing from her life." Booth said looking around.

"Where would she keep the earrings?" Brennan asked as they looked around.

"Well she wouldn't want the other girls to find them." Booth said. "She didn't want them to know she was involved."

They poked around but found nothing until Booth found a copy of Tom Sawyer. He opened it and a few pages in found the inner area hallowed out.

"Here." Booth said holding it out to Brennan as she inspected them.

"I suspect we can match these to the other girls." Brennan said looking with gloved hands for epithelials.

Booth opened the desk drawer and was puzzled when he saw a pink sparkly phone.

"Why did she leave that behind?" Brennan asked. "Wasn't her last call when Yaz was attacking?"

"Yeah, so she was here." Booth said turning on the phone his eyes lit up at the last number dialed.

"What is it?"

"Her last phone call was to Sweets cell."


	20. Chapter 20

16.

**Booth visits Sweets only to find that the shrink isn't eating but is talking. Sweets remembers a helpful detail leading them to Amanda Jones room and the missing accessories. They also find Amanda's cell phone and a call to Sweets. Sweets cuts are healing, all but one.**

* * *

"Do we have any ideas where Sweets cell is?" Booth asked the Jeffersonian team as they dug thru the evidence brought back from the bunker.

"I'm pretty sure that we would have noticed the cell phone." Hodgins said going thru the evidence anyway.

"Did you find anything in the car?" Booth asked, lending a hand to helping in the search.

"Fingerprints we matched to Yaz on the steering wheel but that's no surprise. Otherwise, just the girl and her remains. Her chest cavity had remnants of materials like, dumped in them. I haven't had time to analyze them yet." Hodgins said.

"Shouldn't we doing that?" Booth asked.

"I thought we were stopping everything to find Sweets cell." Hodgins said tersely and they went back to work.

Now that the car had been removed of case details it sat to the side. Angela got in it and opened the glove box. In it she found the usual registration papers. She turned the key over so that the car wasn't started but the accessories came on. Angela noticed that the radio was set to CD. She turned up the volume to hear what Sweets was listening to. She had once heard about his love for death metal and braced herself for the assault on her ears but was surprised when a different sound came on. Amos Lee was singing about _The Darkness_. She sat and listened with no on stopping her.

"You always amaze me Sweets."

"Maybe we can get Angela to track the phone." Cam said.

"Yeah." Booth said watching her sit in Sweets car. "Just give her a minute."

Hodgins stopped as he considered an idea, as though putting two things together. "I've got an idea." Hodgins said locating a package marked evidence. From it he found a large pair of boots. He took them over to a large magnifying glass and held out a light to look at them closely.

"And what are we doing Dr. Hodgins?" Cam asked. "We are trying to find…"

"Yeah." He said. "And I found Sweets cell."

"In a boot?" Cam asked.

"Parts of it yes. He crushed it, stomping on it, some of the pieces of glass are embedded in the rubber. He smashed it and threw the pieces in Heather Linte's open chest, like it was a trash can."

He sat the shoes aside and Booth sighed. No way were they getting Sweets cell now.

"Well wait, if we are looking for a possible voicemail, then wouldn't it be stored on a central system someplace? A number you can call." Cam asked.

"I'm on it." Angela said walking by. She had been listening and left the car once the song was over.

"Well good, we'll see what she finds." Booth said.

"Anything turn up from her laptop?" Cam asked.

"No, Angela went thru it first when we brought it back. Nothing suspicious." Booth explained.

"So whatever she was doing it wasn't on it. Maybe she had another one?" Hodgins proposed.

"I don't know." Booth said defeated. He was tired and exhausted and tired and exhausted of being worried.

"We'll get there." Cam said encouragingly. Booth didn't feel the same way.

Booth's cell phone rang.

"Booth." He answered. "Yeah, I can be there." He hung up and looked at his watch. "Heather Linte's parents are at the bureau. I'm heading there to talk to them and then I'm heading over to watch the game with Sweets."

"Okay." Hodgins said as he left. "We'll just stay here and dig." He added sarcastically which gained him a look from Cam. "What? I'd rather watch a game too."

"It's not about watching a game." Cam said thinking of when she should go and see Sweets next. Maybe tonight after Booth left. Dr. Brown had told her the night's had been hardest for Sweets.

* * *

Sweets glanced up at the clock on the wall. Kick off was twenty minutes ago. He didn't figure Booth would show. He knew that was a lie, he had expected him to show. It was a sting that he hadn't. _He's got more things to do than your mopey self _Sweets scolded himself. _Hey I even ate a little bit at lunch to make everyone happy. And I showered and I made it from the wheel chair to this uncomfortable chair. _Sweets had felt pretty good about his afternoon. It was crashing down as his mood darkened.

He adjusted his position in the chair but still couldn't get comfortable. He went to touch the stinging side and retracted as it ached. He thought the doctor had said the infection from the gunshot wound had been treated but why did it hurt so much he wondered. He looked over towards the call button but it was too far away and he was too tired to get back in his chair and get it. He would wait, surely someone would be by soon, he could wait.

* * *

"Hello, I'm special agent Seeley Booth." Booth greeted the red eyes of Heather Linte's parents. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

"I'm glad after a month, we, we have something to bury…" Her father's voice faded towards the end, a mixture of grief and closure.

Booth looked for the right thing to say but he spoke again. "I understand that you found her killer?"

"Yes, a man by the name of Yaz de Gaul. He was wanted by Homeland Security, he was a terrorist who made his way into the country." Booth explained and noticed the father's eyes search for something.

"Sir if you have any news on the case, we'd like for you to share it. We may have another missing girl." Booth said now more pressure in his voice for the man to spill it.

"Is the other girl Amanda Jones?" He asked.

"Yes, they're sorority sisters." Booth said.

"She came to my office one day. I'm the director for American Mutual Financial security. She came to me, said she knew my daughter and asked for a job at the firm. I wasn't sure why Joe McClaskey's daughter want to come and work for me. I knew she was a party girl and would probably blow off the work so I said no. She persisted until I finally had to ask security to nicely escort her out the door." He explained. "When she left she said, mostly to herself something about how Yaz wasn't going to like it. I wouldn't have thought twice about it if the name hadn't been so unique."

Booth couldn't help but wonder why this young woman was so persistent at getting a job. He spoke with the parents a bit longer and then bid them goodbye.

He looked at his watch, a hour late to meet Sweets and watch the game. He couldn't stop thinking about this new development. He wanted to make one phone call before he went to see Sweets.

"Angela?"

"Yeah Booth, sorry, I'm still working on the voicemail it's….."

"No, it's not about that, I just spoke with Heather Linte's parents. Amanda Jones came to Mr. Linte and all but demanded a job." Booth explained.

"Why, her dad gave her all the money she wanted." Angela said surprised.

"Yeah I know which makes me wonder why she wanted desperately to get in the door at a place that worked to secure people's financials." Booth said and Angela got the hint.

"So she wanted in someplace." Angela said as Hodgins and Cam joined them the conversation as they entered Angela's office.

"Booth, I thought you were going to see Sweets." Cam asked.

"I am I'm running late." He said and Cam decided as soon as the call was done she would stop by and see him. It was getting late and she wanted to be there tonight from what Dr. Brown said had been going on at night with the nightmares.

"If Heather Linte was the first to go maybe she was a warning to Amanda Jones to stay on track of whatever she was doing." Hodgins suggested. "Apparently she didn't reach her goal and the bodies kept disappearing, telling her she had better stay at it."

"Booth I'm pulling some profiles here. Let me see what I can find about the other girls."

"Okay, I'm late and I'm headed to see Sweets after I pick up Christine. Call me if you find something." Booth said and hung up. He finally felt like he might be onto something. Cam was already gone from the office.

* * *

Sweets wasn't sure who he was rooting for, Germany or Brazil but he did notice the room was getting warm. He recognized that surely the temperature hadn't changed any and he shifted in his seat again but winced at the pain as it did so. He was coming to the conclusion it wasn't going to subside any. He looked again to the call button by the bed and began to plan a route to it when a commercial came on.

He was mesmerized by the logo. He had seen that logo before. He saw the one was the FDIC logo, it was everywhere. But the one across from it, that one seemed a little more unique. Sweets pushed forward in his chair to view it closer, in small type he could read it, 'United States Federal Reserve System.'

In an instant he was back in the bunker. Jana Anderson was screaming for help and Sweets was typing. Sweets became paralyzed at the screams in the memory. He pushed past it and remembered he had accidentally clicked on an open window on Yaz's laptop and had seen the logo and consequential information on the Federal Reserve Bank.

Sweets opened his eyes again. _The bank heist._ He thought to himself. _That was just a dry run, he was going for the real thing, and he needed Amanda Jones to do it, her father is on the Financial Services and General Development Committee._ Sweets saw the puzzle falling together and needed to get to the phone. He braced himself to stand up. He didn't have time for the wheelchair. Unfortunately he didn't have the strength either.

* * *

"Booth said you may have found something?" Brennan asked walking into Angela's office.

"Yeah, he went to get Chrsitine and see Sweets." Hodgins said.

"Yeah, I had more work to do. Maybe Christine will perk up Sweets, she has a very positive effect on him." Brennan said.

"Well, I found that the sorority sisters, Anna Melmer, Jana Anderson and Cindy Bender, either the mother or father worked for either the Commission for activity on Wall Street, the assistant to the Treasurer…"

"That's some fancy jobs." Hodgins said. "But they belonged to an elite sorority for people like Joe McClasky's daughter."

"Yeah but they're all financial jobs." Brennan said. "I wonder if Amanda Jones went to visit them the same way she did Heather Linte's father?"

"Let's find out." Angela said calling Booth's cell.

* * *

Sweets hit the ground hard and on his side with stitches from the glass and consequently his gunshot wound. He idly wondered if he in some way favored that side that he was always injuring it lately. The thought vanished as the pain took over and the screaming was not so much the women screaming at him as his own body. He pulled himself across the floor as his body begged him to stop but he persisted. Instead of heading to the call button he pulled on the landline phone.

Propping himself up he dialed Booth's phone number.

* * *

"Yeah, I'm on my way to get Christine now." Booth said.

"We were hoping you could do some digging first..."

"Hang on Angela, I've got an incoming call." Booth said and glanced at the number.

"Go ahead, I don't recognize it. It can go to voicemail."

"Oh, okay, could you see if Amanda Jones went to the parents of the other murder victims parents with the same request as Heather Linte's?"

"Sure, I'll just pull off the road here and make some calls."

* * *

Sweets got Booth's voice mail and hung up. He was sweating now and was pretty sure that his side was on fire. He ignored it and called another number, fumbling as the digits were becoming fuzzy.

"Hello?" Angela said distracted.

"Angela it's Sweets." He said breathlessly.

"Sweets, are you okay, you sound…"

"I'm fine." Sweets said as he moved his hand from his side only to see blood on his fingertips. "Just fine. Look, I remember." Sweets had to pause to keep the pain under control. "Yaz, the bank heist was just a test run, he was going after the Federal Reserve."

"Are you sure Sweets? What would he do with the money…" Hodgins asked now that they were on speaker. Brennan was becoming concerned with the tone of Sweets voice.

"It's not the money. He's a terrorist. He was looking to bring down the financial institutions of America, hit it where it hurts the most and get asked back to his country, as a hero." Sweets was breathless when he finished talking.

Hodgins & Angela were discussing the likelihood of that while Brennan was focusing more on the breathing she heard. It was thick and labored.

"Sweets are you okay?" She asked there was no sound on the line. "Sweets?"


	21. Chapter 21

17.

**Cam has left for the day to see Sweets. Booth is late to watch the soccer game with Sweets and has stopped to make some phone calls about the case. Meanwhile, Sweets painstaking, heavy on the pain-particularly at the site of the gun shout wound, makes his way to the phone having solved the case. Yaz de Gaul was planning to cripple the American financial system and become a hero into his terrorist country. After Sweets shares this with Angela, Hodgins and Brennan the line goes quiet.**

* * *

Cam casually walked into the hospital where Sweets was admitted. It was quiet as the dinners were being served. She sighed as the Jeffersonian was calling her. _Can't you guys handle things for just a few freakin' minute?! _But she smiled when she answered.

"This is…"

"Cam!" Cam Brennan interrupting. "Are you with Sweets, Hodgins said you were going there?" Cam could tell Brennan was calling from her car and was quite frantic.

"Yes, Dr. Brennan I'm almost to his room, what's wrong, is Booth okay?" By the sound of her voice she knew Brennan was concerned with someone and she assumed that person was Booth.

"I can't get a hold of Booth. We were on the phone with Sweets, he didn't sound good and then the line went dead."

Cam paused at the news and then broke into a run as fast as her designer heels would allow.

"Cam, stay on the line with me." Cam could hear a vulnerability in Brennan's voice as she said it. In seconds Cam was in Sweets room which was dim as the sun had set but no lights were on yet, save for the glow of the TV. There was no sign of Sweets at first but then saw him, partially propped up and partially hunched on his side, the phone having dropped just out of his reach.

"Sweets?" Cam asked turning his head to look at her as she bent to his side.

"Hi Dr. Soroyan." He said looking back at her but only because she held his face in place. His voice was calm and worn with a sense that his mind was a bit distant from what was going on. His dark chocolate eyes were swimming in a sea of red that struck Cam.

"Sweets, what's wrong?" She asked as she put her fingers to his neck and checked his vitals. Cam could hear faintly Brennan from the phone on the ground next to her asking what was going on. She focused on Sweets at the moment.

Sweets answered something incoherently so Cam adjusted him into more of a sitting position. She had assumed he had overexerted himself and was having difficulty breathing leading to the incoherency, but he still seemed a bit too pale for that. She reached up to turn on the table side light and looked back at Sweets and saw the blood coming from Sweets side.

Cam headed to the bed and frantically pushed the call button and ran to the hall shouting for help. She ran back to Sweets who was fading into unconsiousness. She tapped his cheek to get him to stay awake. The bubbly nurse came in and said she would get Dr. Brown immediately.

"Sweets, what's wrong, what's happened?" She said trying to get his attention still.

"Did I help? Will they leave me be now?" He asked but Cam had no time to guess what he was talking about.

She couldn't see where the bleeding was coming from so she leaned in to help Sweets up. She quickly found he was of little assistance but also of little weight. She had him half way off the floor and on the bed when another set of hands helped her get him on the surface the rest of the way. Cam looked up to see Dr. Brennan on the other side.

"Where is the bleeding coming from?" She asked.

"I don't know." Cam said as Brennan removed her jacket. "Looks like here." She said having cleared the blood smears enough to located it. Sweets winced as they touched him.

"I thought they had the gun shot wound cleared of infection." Brennan said in surrpise.

"We did." Dr. Brown said coming in and looking at the charts. "This is a new development as far as we know."

Brennan ran a gloved hand over the area as gently as possible as Sweets continued to stiffen as the pain hit.

"There appears to be something here." She said feeling a bump under the skin. "The body is trying to reject something at this spot."

"The bullet as removed wasn't it?" Cam asked.

"We need to do surgery right away. It will take a few minutes to get prepped." Dr. Brown said knowing that was not typical of what they had to offer here.

"Do you still have the x-rays?" Brennan asked and Dr. Brown pulled them from the file. The three turned to the hall where the light was brighter to see if they had any traces of a bullet.

"There is no bullet, but what is this here?" Dr. Brown said pointing to the area at the side.

"That appears to be bone." Brennan said looking at it. "But that bone does not belong there."

"Perhaps it is a chip that came loose when his ribs were broken?"

"No, that's not possible." Brennan said looking at the x-ray again. "This bone chip could be very difficult to remove if we can't easily locate it."

Sweets was listening to their voices and conversation. He felt like he should remember something. The last day with Yaz was a blur from the activity, the starvation, what he had seen and the pain, a blinding pain. _You deserve it_ a voice said to him but he no longer knew if it was the women's screams telling him that, himself or those around him.

Sweets remembered Jessica dying and for the first time pressed past the screams and instead to what happened after. He remembered jumping at the sound of a saw, that was different from the others. He stopped right after and wrote something down. Yaz held it out for Sweets to see, it was the size of a quarter and flat like one as well. Yaz smiled at Sweets. He remembered that Yaz was onto his clue dropping, the reason he kidnapped Jessica and then Dr. Brennan. After that all he knew was pain he felt. It mixed with the grief of being on the floor shortly after looking at all the organs that surrounded him. There was so much pain, so much as Yaz dug…

Sweets eyes flashed open as he remembered clearly what happened. _Are you finally going to help us? _The voices screamed.

"Hey what the hell is going on?" Booth said coming down the hall.

"Where is Christine?" Brennan asked.

"I asked Max to pick her up. I got about ten messages while I was on the phone trying to find out the other girls parents when I get a call from Angela telling me to get here right away." Booth said.

"We are taking Dr. Sweets into emergency surgery." Cam said as they looked at the x-ray one more time.

"There is a stray bone here." Brennan said pointing. "It is causing Dr. Sweets a great deal of pain and it must be removed, but it's going to be dangerous."

"I'm not a surgeon." Dr. Brown wanted to make clear.

"It will take too much time to get someone else here." Cam observed knowing she was going to need to step up to the task. Live bodies were slightly different than working on most mortem ones. She didn't want Sweets to die at her hand, nor by the lack of doing anything.

"Well how did that happen, how did no one catch it before?" Booth asked.

"I would suggest that it was somehow in the body and over the course of a week it has moved in the body." Brennan said.

"So Sweets has been in agony all this time and we didn't do anything?" Booth asked angry.

"With the multitude of Dr. Sweets other symptoms this would have been difficult to detect." Dr. Brown said in his defense. "And if you haven't noticed already, Dr. Sweets isn't terribly forthcoming about his ailments."

"Cam?" A weak voice came from the room. "Here."

They all turned to see what Sweets was saying when they saw his side- covered in blood, his hand also covered in the dark crimson liquid holding out a small piece in his hand. They stood in shock a second at the sight but Sweets wasn't able to hold his hand up long enough and it fell, the chip dropping from his hand and across the floor.

To Booth it seemed like slow motion but in reality he knew the three doctors had rushed forward. They were applying pressure and shouting for this or that but Booth didn't hear it. He stepped back out of the way of nurses who rushed in and out with various requests.

Between one of the rushes Booth stepped in the room. He watched Sweets body react to the pain but his face held a faint smile. For a second his eyes met with Booth's and his lips seemed so say, 'they're quiet now.'

He looked away as Brennan and Cam rushed to stop the bleeding and the drugs that went thru the newly placed IV line took effect and Sweets entered a sweet slumber.

_What the hell were you thinking?! _Booth thought to himself of Sweets. He recalled what Sweets was holding out in his hand just before they rushed in. _What was so important to dig into your own side and fish out?_ Booth wondered again and looked on the floor for the piece that rolled away. He soon located the bloody chip. Though coated with blood Booth could see writing etched into it. An address.


	22. Chapter 22

18.

**Cam & Brennan show up to the hospital only to find Sweets in pain & slightly out of it. Upon reviewing the x-rays with Dr. Brown they find a stray bone. Booth shows up and Sweets has in the meantime taken the liberty of removing the chip himself. While being attended to by the medical knowledge friendly people Booth locates the chip and finds an address scribed onto the surface.**

* * *

Booth and Brennan drove in silence as they proceeded to the questionable address. A team of backup was on its way as well though both their thoughts were elsewhere.

Brennan had insisted Booth not got alone while Cam had insisted that she had the situation with Sweets under control. Booth questioned that by the looks of things when they left but only so many hands could be involved he supposed.

His thoughts bounced around as to what a sadistic person Yaz was to use Sweets as a place to plant his own clue. Brennan held the bone chip in her hand and knew once she saw it that it belonged to Jennifer Warren. _Sick bastard. _It was the thought that it all boiled down to.

They drew close to the address and arrived at the same time back up did. They approached the address, the house about 500 square feet with windows with bars. Booth cringed at what they would find when they saw the padlock on the outside of the front door, however it wasn't locked.

They bolted in the door on the count of three and searched the place. A slight squeal came from the corner and soon they saw the outline of a young blonde. The quick searched proved the rest of the place had been empty.

Booth and Brennan approached the young girl with caution. She was shaking violently and appeared to be cold. Booth took off his jacket and carefully put it around the girl, Amanda Jones.

"He's coming, I know he's coming." She said with tears running down her face.

"Who, who is coming?" Brennan asked her while Booth called for paramedics.

"He…he….Yaz…he's coming. He said so." She stammered.

"Yaz de Gaul is dead." Brennan said to which the young woman looked in shock at Brennan.

"He said he was coming. He told me to wait. I knew it was bad. I knew it was worse if I didn't. He'll find you if you don't come you know. Those people…all those people…"

"We're going to have the paramedics look you over okay?" Booth said and the duo stepped aside so the medics could step in. They looked her over and removed her from the house when she started to panic.

"No, if I'm not here, he'll know!" She shouted.

Booth and Brennan approached the girl again.

"I promise you Yaz is dead." Booth told her.

"How do you know?" She asked.

"Because I killed him." He said definitvely.

"And you got him?" She asked.

"Yes, Yaz is dead, I can…"

"No, no, the other guy, Dr. Sweets? Is he dead?" She asked.

Booth recalled that Amanda Jones last phone call when to Sweets.

"How did you know…" Brennan began but the girl began to cry.

"It's my fault. I sold him out." She said disgusted with herself.

"What do you mean, what was your involvement with Yaz de Gaul?"

"He found me, wanted me to sell out my father. He thought I was just a rich brat. But I couldn't, I loved my father. I tried to go thru others to get what he wanted but he found out, and he killed them. Dr. Sweets had called me since he was working the case, Yaz knew him somehow, I don't know."

"The bank heist. Booth said. "He probably didn't think twice about Sweets after the bank heist until Sweets started digging on Yaz."

"And then Dr. Sweets was a threat to him." Brennan said understanding.

"He…he got me to get to that doctor, and then Yaz got him. I'm so sorry." She sobbed.

"He's alive." Booth said and the girl's face lit up.

"He's okay?"

"Well, he's alive." Booth said. "Now let's get you to the hospital."

The medics took her away and Booth knew he had an idea of what had gone down thus far.

"Wait, why did you come here?" Brennan asked her.

"Yaz called me, he said he had some business to do at some Jeffersonian. Then he'd meet me here. He didn't show." She explained now a little more calm that Yaz was dead.

"And you waited?" Brennan asked.

"You wait when Yaz tells you to wait." She said still obviously terrified of Yaz.

The ambulance left and Booth turned to Brennan.

"She waited here, a week. She could have left anytime." Booth said realizing the situation. "He truly knew how to terrify a person."

"Booth she's terrified. She's been in here a week." Brennan said. "She's lost quite a bit of weight, she's terrified and I think she is carrying a great deal of guilt."

"Well, lucky for her we know a shrink who is going thru the exact same thing." Booth said as they left when Booth's phone rang.

"Hey Angela." Booth said. "Yeah we got Amanda Jones. Aside from a long road to recovery she's going to be okay. No, no word from Cam yet on Sweets."

Brennan had been steadily checking her phone in case she missed a call.

"Well I was able to finally get that call Amanda Jones made to Sweets cell phone."

Booth put Angela on speaker phone so Brennan could hear as well.

Amanda's voice came on the voicemail, filled with fear and nervousness. "Dr. Sweets. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to sell you out. I had no choice. I think Yaz is coming for me now. I know this is much to ask, and I know Yaz has your phone, but I'm hoping you'll get out, you seemed like a real smart guy, you figured out Yaz, that's why he went for you, you know. Can you tell my father something for me? Tell him I love him. Tell him I'm sorry. Tell everyone that I'm so sorry."

"Wanna tell me what that was about?" Angela asked.

"Amanda Jones was working for Yaz, he terrorized her into getting her father to give her access to the records." Brennan explained. "She didn't want to and went thru her friends. Yaz found out and killed each one every time she tried."

"Sweets was onto him so he took Sweets using Amanda as bait. Yaz must have met Amanda at this address regularly. He called Amanda on his way to the Jeffersonian when he kidnapped Bones. Then I killed him and he never showed. If she hadn't of showed and he was still alive he would have tracked her down. Same reason Acadia went along with the bank scheme. Die a quick death or Yaz would draw it out for you, they knew he would hunt them both down, so they surrendered." Booth explained.

"But Brennan, you said that bone was from Jessica Warren." Angela said. "How did he put the address on it when Amanda wasn't there yet."

"He killed Jessica Warren only a day before he kidnapped me." Brennan said thinking aloud. "He knew he was going to lead us to Amanda Jones. His work was coming to an end so, everyone, her, Sweets, everyone was coming to an end. He must have given up on trying to get the bank acess."

"Sweets hid clues for us, so that sick bastard delivered a clue in Sweets." Booth surmised. "He would have delivered Sweets to us dead if he had to, we just got to him a little sooner than he planned."

"He was probably planning some sadistic way to send us Sweets and Bren both." Angela said.

"Well that was a gamble to guess two days ahead of time that Amanda would go to the address?" Hodgins asked.

"You do what Yaz tells you to do." Booth repeated. "He knew."

"But I don't see Yaz as just giving up and moving on." Hodgins suggested and they had to agree.

"He was going to get rid of Amanda Jones and Sweets. He tied up loose ends but what next for him?" Brennan asked.

"Well one thing is for sure, I'll be betting that Booth is going to get one hell of an atta-boy from the Senator for finding his daughter alive." Angela said.

Booth didn't feel like entertaining that thought. He had a bad feeling that Yaz's work wasn't done yet.

Brennan's cell phone rang.

She looked up. "Sweets is out of surgery."


	23. Chapter 23

19.

**Brennan & Booth find Amanda Jones who admits she was working for Yaz and sold out Sweets. She feels guilty for what she has done. Sweets is out of surgery but Booth fears Yaz would not have given up easily on his plan to destroy the financial system.**

* * *

"Did she say how he is?" Booth asked as he and Brennan raced back to the facility where Sweets was.

"She said they had considered transferring him to the hospital but they didn't want to risk moving him too much." Brennan said. "She said he was resting."

"That's all? Maybe you should call her back."

"Maybe you should just hurry." Brennan suggested and Booth pushed in on the gas.

* * *

Cam wasn't a typically an emotional person. She sat composed, perched by the bed. Dr. Brown would have identified her as a bird protecting her nest. Her dark eyes stared down anyone who came too close. While her expression bore a sense of deep thought, he could tell the tenderness that lie behind them.

"How is he doing?" Dr. Brown asked knowing that Cam had eyed the equipment and surveyed the scene with great attention.

"His vitals are holding and he's…he's…" Cam paused and bit her lip. "It's not fair Dr. Brown."

"This young man has been thru a lot." He agreed and they put their medical clipboard aside metaphorically.

"Sounds like his whole life." Cam said resting her chin on her hand. "And look who's here now, there's no one to be here for him."

"I see one very concerned woman here for him." Dr. Brown patted her on the shoulder and walked away.

"You deserve a lot more than me kiddo." Cam said rubbing her eyes.

"I'll take it." The groggy voice from the bed said.

Cam quickly uncovered her eyes and saw him looking up at her with tired eyes.

"Hey Sweets." She said leaning in to put her hand over his. "I'm glad you're awake."

"Did you think I wouldn't?" He inquired with a raised eyebrow and curled lip.

"It was a little more touch and go there than I would have liked."

"Oh, sorry." He said coughing to try and clear his throat.

"Let me get you some water." She said as he shook his head to protest.

"Yes, it's what friends do."

Sweets tried to take the cup from her but in all honesty he knew he needed Cam's help.

"I know you're tired Sweets, but really, how are you feeling?" Cam asked.

Sweets paused to listen, it was quiet, there were no screams. He waited a second more and realized he didn't feel quite so heavy in his heart with guilt.

"I still feel bad. But I guess I couldn't have…"

"No Sweets, you couldn't have. And they found Amanda Jones, she's alive." Cam said and Sweets smiled. "She may need someone to help her get thru the hell she went thru. Know anyone who might be able to help?" Cam smiled enticing Sweets out of his funk.

"I might be able to help." Sweets smiled.

"But first some rest." Cam said. "Some good rest this time."

Sweets nodded and was soon back to sleep. She waited a while longer and Dr. Brown returned.

"You have a calming effect on him." He said watching. "Usually the chills came on by now, the nightmares."

"Let's hope they stay away now." Cam said watching Sweets, her heart still going out to a kind soul that seemed to so often get the short end of the stick. "I might wait a little longer to make sure they do."

"Maybe we'll keep you company." Booth said stepping in with Brennan.

"What about Christine?" Cam asked.

"She's fast asleep with my father." Brennan said. "I'm quite sure she is safe and sound. For a moment, I'd just like to…" Brennan wasn't sure how to formulate a thought.

"We'd all like to just be here for a moment." Booth finished for her.

And so they sat, quietly, a few words exchanged between them here and there. But mostly they needed to unwind from the case, to take a moment to breathe and watch their young and battered friend do something he hadn't in so long, relax.

* * *

As soon as the phone rang Booth sat up in bed and snatched it up.

"What's wrong? How's Sweets?" He answered.

"What? No, he's fine. Still sleeping." Angela said.

The Booth's & Cam had left after one a.m. as they were falling asleep where they sat and were then content that Sweets was okay.

Booth let out a long sigh as for so long the wellness of their psychologist friend lay in the balance.

"What's going on then?" Booth said once he motioned to the now awake Brennan that things were fine.

"I think I have a lead on what Yaz was up to."

"We're on our way."

* * *

Soon they were all piled together in Angela's office looking at a series of images on the screen.

"Before we start, how is Amanda Jones?" Angela asked.

"She's recovering, resting." Booth said. "She's still scared that Yaz is coming for her. She was expecting to die that day when he called her. The fact he never made it to do so is hard for her to grasp."

"And Sweets?" Hodgins asked.

"He had breakfast." Cam said with a smile. "And kept it all down." She said with a bigger smile. "I said we would come by today."

"Well we can maybe deliver some good news to him too. It looks like Sweets may have stopped the terrorist from his malicious plot too." Angela said.

"So Yaz did have a plan." Booth said cementing his gut feeling.

"Yeah, we had assumed that he didn't get what he wanted from the girls so he killed him. But from Booth's phone calls last night the last girl, Cindy Bender, her father did give Amanda Jones an internship. It only lasted one day. Amanda Jones was able to get in the building and connect Yaz's device. Apparently she felt too guilty about it and disconnected it quickly. However it gave Yaz enough to hack into the system."

She pulled up more images for them to see.

"His software was starting to hack in when Yaz had Brennan strapped to the table." Angela explained.

"So he did get in." Booth said.

"Just barely." Angela said. "He actually screwed himself over when he threw Sweets against the wall. Sweets pitched the jars on the floor with the formaldehyde liquid in them. It seemed into the lines and fried the server."

"I hope it was worth it." Booth said thinking of Sweets being thrown against that wall.

"I contacted the Federal Reserve, they said the hack would have gone thru, but it was stopped and the system wasn't corrupted." Angela explained.

"Sounds like someone in the big office owes Sweets a drink." Cam said.

"He'll never collect on it." Hodgins said. "The man will cover this up…"

Booth went to stop him but Angela got in first.

"I'd like to disagree but the feds already came in and collected Yaz's computer and servers I was digging into this with. The plus side is they did say 'thank you' when they left. That's an improvement right?"

"At least we have Sweets." Booth said not caring about the conspiracy by comparison.

"Do we?" Angela asked.

* * *

They weren't sure if them all going was a good idea or not but no one wanted to stay behind. So they filled their arms with gifts and cards and piled into Booth's SUV.

Sweets wasn't in his room so Cam & Brennan were locating Dr. Brown. Hodgins set about taking direction from Angela on setting up the gifts in a specific order. Booth headed off on his own out to where he saw Sweets on his last visit. He found the psychologist off on his own, furry critters peering out from the bushes to see if he had more food for them.

Sweets had no plate and sat in the wheel chair. Booth watched as Sweets sat contently in the shade at the edge of the sunlight. He put his hands on the sides of the wheels and Booth watched as Sweets geared himself up to move. Booth wanted to help but he knew Sweets would want to do it on his own. He propelled forward and after a moment adjusted to the sunlight.

Booth smiled as he watched Sweets bask in the sunlight, away from the dark.

"How is he?" Brennan asked as she and Cam approached.

Booth smiled, "I think he'll be just fine."


End file.
